Edna O'Brien talks about success and the challenges of life as a writer.
Edna O'Brien's first book 'The Country Girls' was published in 1960 and became an international bestseller, but was banned in Ireland.
The triumph, fuss and notoriety of it all passed her by, in part because her then husband Ernest Gébler was not happy with the focus on her as a writer. Success does not sit easily with her in general,
I'm much too anxious, I'm much too hard on myself.
Unfortunately the popularity of her novel created an unhappy environment at home, and Edna O'Brien and Ernest Gébler separated and later divorced,
If something isn't right, then it is better to part the waters.
Being a writer means different things for men and for women, and it is more difficult for a women writer to divide up her time between her work and her husband.
Edna O'Brien strongly disagrees with those feminists who say that men and women are the same, and directs them to the great works of literature,
Read Shakespeare, and you get immediately what is the difference between men and women, and thank God for it.
David Hanly suggests that the conclusion to be reached from her books is that all men are dishonourable. This is most definitely not the case, Edna O'Brien maintains, as she is not anti-men in any way.
To think that I just am this sort of bitter alone woman who writes savagely about men, I couldn't let that pass.
Organised religion has no place in her life thanks to the negative experiences of growing up a Catholic, but she describes herself as a spiritual person,
The hunch of God is essential to me in my inner self.
This episode of 'Writer In Profile' was broadcast on 5 June 1992. The presenter is David Hanly.
