Philip O Ceallaigh |
|
Philip Ó Ceallaigh, a native of County Waterford, has lived and worked in Britain, Spain, Russia, the US, Kosovo, and Georgia. He currently lives in Bucharest. Notes from a Turkish Whorehouse is his first book.
Will the printed word endure?
Some of it.
Which newspaper do you read?
The Irish Times, when I can.
Who/What is your biggest influence?
Caffeine, alcohol, weather, music, words, mortality, laughter, certain forms.
What books are you reading at the moment?
None. Haven't felt like reading or writing anything the last four days, since finishing Patrick White's The Tree of Man.
What books did you read as a child?
Learnt to read with cartoon books. Then read about animals, anything about animals. I remember when I was seven reading in a book about what happened when they bombed Hiroshima, and asking my Dad if it was a true story, if people had really done that. I read Animal Farm when I was eight, thought it was quite a good story about animals. Then I got onto Science Fiction when I was nine.
Which literary character would you most like to meet?
Madame Bovary and Anna Karenina, on the same evening.
Which authors do you most admire?
Hamsun, Celine, Bukowski, Chekhov, Dostoyevsky.
Hemingway and Joyce for their short stories rather than the other stuff.
Where/When do you do most of your writing?
In the morning, after the coffee kicks in. In a small apartment on the ninth floor of an apartment block in Bucharest.
