The Independent profile of Banville:

"I think, after the first 30 years, that I've begun to get the hang of it," he comments wryly. "Certain technical challenges become easier, although I do find that language always brings you back to its own difficulties. I think now I give a good impression of knowing about real life. I don't, of course. I sit in a room alone for four years writing, but then emerge with this thing. A book is like a waking dream, I suppose, but to be able to share that with other people is a great privilege."

"Banville has a talent for sensuous phrasing, and pungent observation of human frailty, but in other areas important for fiction - plot, character, pacing, suspense - The Sea is a crashing disappointment."
The Sunday Times