Cecelia Ahern

I write human stories. I write about people. Not as a product of their environment. But from the stance that everybody is made of the same thing.

I'm most happy when I am writing at night, because I need space and time to write.

Decide where and when you want to write. I like space, and silence is an inspiration to me.

I write my novels longhand. I love the feeling of writing; I love to see pen on paper. It feels more creative than typing, and it's a more visual process for me - I can picture the entire scene in my head and am merely writing what I see.

We have a tendency to put ourselves last, we concentrate on everything else; work, friends, family, home issues, but we ignore the deeper stuff until it becomes so compressed that it can explode.

Whenever I go to Germany I find that my readers have T-shirts with my book covers printed on them. They come to all the events, they have gifts and they come with their families. They are always very open to sharing their personal stories.