Colm Tóibín

And then it's cheap.

Yes, I had to explain to the interviewer what that meant.

I'd never knowingly made a bed, meaning that perhaps they got made in some funny way without me intending to make them.

But that's now changed since I said that.

And since it appeared, I now try always to make the bed.

So if I pass the bed and it's not made, I make a big, big effort.

I feel like a nurse in a hospital.

I try and get the sheets all straightened and do all this stuff.

It still looks wrong.

Things are always hanging down awkwardly, asymmetrically.

But I do do that as a sign that I'm making an effort.

But I can't cook or I can't do anything.

I was in my editor's house in New York and I went into all her rooms just to look at them.

Really?

Just some nosiness and all the beds were made.

And I said to her, do you make them in the morning?

She said, well, do you not?

And I said, no.

And then I tried to do that for a while in New York, make my own bed in the morning.

So my bedroom looks like it's, you know, ready.