Three of my novels and a good number of my short stories are told from the point of view of men. I… — Colm Toibin Copy Share Image
When a book comes from the publisher and you see it for the first time... Of course it's not remotely like seeing… — Colm Toibin Copy Share Image
In Ireland, novels and plays still have a strange force. The writing of fiction and the creation of theatrical images can affect… — Colm Toibin Copy Share Image
I lived in the Republic of Ireland. I wrote a book about the North but as an outsider. The hatreds there were… — Colm Toibin Copy Share Image
“...in one of his Irish Times columns written under the name of Myles na gCopaleen, [Flann] O’Brien offered a service to readers… — Colm Tóibin Copy Share Image
My first novel was turned down by about twenty publishers over a period of two and a half years. Because my name… — Colm Toibin Copy Share Image
If you have to read to cheer yourself up, read biographies of writers who went insane. — Colm Toibin Copy Share Image
“He turned and looked at Henry. “Did you always know that you would write all these books?” “I know the next sentence,”… — Colm Tóibín Copy Share Image
Roth Unbound is filled with intelligent readings and smart judgments. Because of the author's sympathy and sharp mind, it offers real insight… — Colm Toibin Copy Share Image
“There’s an immense dramatic possibility in describing that universe. The books, for me, were an enormous relief in that sense of how… — Colm Tóibín Copy Share Image
The old Victorian laws against homosexuality were still on the statute books until the early 1990s. As a gay man living in… — Colm Toibin Copy Share Image
Between the time I was 16 until I was about 20, the books I read were by people like Thomas Mann, James… — Colm Toibin Copy Share Image
“But he also knew that, as much as he wanted to aid and console the soldier, he wanted to be alone in… — Colm Tóibín Copy Share Image
I think you can get a sort of intensity and an edginess offering nine stories in a book. Competing versions of things. — Colm Toibin Copy Share Image
“The only time I've ever learned anything from a review was when John Lanchester wrote a piece in the Guardian about my… — Colm Tóibín Copy Share Image
“Ending a novel is almost like putting a child to sleep – it can't be done abruptly." [ Colm Tóibín, Novelist –… — Colm Tóibín Copy Share Image
The novel space is a pure space. I'm nobody once I go into that room. I'm not gay, I'm not bald, I'm… — Colm Toibin Copy Share Image
It really matters to writers to find and treasure readers, all the more when they're on the other side of the world. — Colm Toibin Copy Share Image
Look at Austen. In her novels, you get a dance, followed by an encounter, followed by a letter, then a period of… — Colm Toibin Copy Share Image
It is important to find a publisher and equally important not to be noticed until your third or fourth book. — Colm Toibin Copy Share Image
I've never put Northern Ireland into a novel because it's not my territory. I come from the South, so my imaginative territory… — Colm Toibin Copy Share Image
I first went to Barcelona in 1975 after university, and I stayed for three years. I learnt Catalan because that's what everyone speaks in… — Colm Toibin Copy Share Image
Suffering is too strong a word, but writing is serious work. I pull the stuff up from me - it's not as if it's… — Colm Toibin Copy Share Image
Three of my novels and a good number of my short stories are told from the point of view of men. I was brought… — Colm Toibin Copy Share Image
It may be enough to study history in all its nuance and ambiguity for its own sake. But there is no country free of… — Colm Toibin Copy Share Image
The only routine I have is that I finish everything I start. I wake up early every day - about 6.30 A.M. - but… — Colm Toibin Copy Share Image
While historians may go on attempting grand, sweeping and defining narratives, they work in a time when readers know that another narrative always lies… — Colm Toibin Copy Share Image
John McGovern taught me that it's OK to write repeatedly about the same things. — Colm Toibin Copy Share Image
Some of our loves and attachments are elemental and beyond our choosing, and for that very reason they come spiced with pain and regret… — Colm Toibin Copy Share Image
Solitude is good in the evening. Dublin is a quiet city when you get to a certain age, when your friends settle down and… — Colm Toibin Copy Share Image
“The details of what I told him were with me all the years in the same way as my hands or my arms were… — Colm Tóibín Copy Share Image
I did think of becoming a priest quite late on, when other boys were thinking of knocking over fences and going out with girls.… — Colm Toibin Copy Share Image
