At a press conferance, Claire Keegan replied almost angrily to a journalist who wanted to know what topics she wrote about in her novels: "I'm Irish. I write about dysfunctional families, miserable, loveless lives, illness, old age, winter, the grey weather, boredom, and rain."
And at her side, Colum McCann concluded his colleague's contribution, speaking in an exguisite plural, a la John Ford: "We don't usually talk publicly about ourselves, we prefer to read."