'One Minus One' and 'Barcelona, 1975' are more or less autobiographical. — Colm Toibin Autobiographical Copy Share Image
“Mankind,” Henry found himself saying, “is a very large business.” — Colm Tóibín Business Copy Share Image
John McGovern taught me that it's OK to write repeatedly about the same things. — Colm Toibin About Copy Share Image
I have to write a first draft with a fountain pen before I type it up as a second. — Colm Toibin Draft Copy Share Image
All writing is a form of manipulation, of course, but you realize that a plain sentence can actually do so much. — Colm Toibin Actually Copy Share Image
“I have to give up everything, the house, the servants, my friends, my whole life. I will freeze to death or I… — Colm Tóibín Death Copy Share Image
“I remember too much; I am like the air on a calm day as it holds itself still, letting nothing escape.” — Colm Tóibín Calm Copy Share Image
She was lonely without Blunt, but she was lonelier at the idea that the world went on as though she had not… — Colm Toibin Blunt 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… — Colm Toibin Pleasure 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… — Colm Toibin Books Copy Share Image
Writing tends to be very deliberate. A novelist could probably run a military campaign with some success. They could certainly run a… — Colm Toibin Campaign 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 Books 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… — Colm Toibin Barcelona Copy Share Image
“Could we move around the world staying in nice hotels, just we three, and writing letters home when some very witty remark… — Colm Tóibín Around the world Copy Share Image
“memory and regret can mingle, how much sorrow can be held within, and how nothing seems to have any shape or meaning… — Colm Tóibín Memory Copy Share Image
Everyone who's in America spends the first few years not experiencing it. The person is frightened by the newness of the place… — Colm Toibin America 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 Baby 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 Books Copy Share Image
I said that when I looked at photographs of the firefighters who went into the Twin Towers, their faces looked to me… — Colm Toibin America Copy Share Image
“There will always be reservations, things one must leave out, events one can’t explain without handing over a full map of one’s… — Colm Tóibín Life Copy Share Image
“The idea that she would leave all of this - the rooms of the house once more familiar and warm and comforting… — Colm Tóibín Every day 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 Admiration Copy Share Image
“The men could be easily distinguished as fellow Americans by the quality of their mustaches and the innocent and amicable expressions on… — Colm Tóibín 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 Authors Copy Share Image
“Henry wondered, too, what life would have had for her and how her exquisite faculty of challenge could have dealt with a… — Colm Tóibín Henry Copy Share Image
“There was a time, I know, when I felt rage and I felt sorrow. But now I have lost what leads up… — Colm Tóibín Grief Copy Share Image
I do not know why it matters that I should tell the truth to myself at night, why it should matter that… — Colm Toibin Bird Copy Share Image
“We live in a strange time,’ Electra said. ‘A time when the gods are fading. Some of us still see them but… — Colm Tóibín Different world Copy Share Image
“I turned and moved fast, focusing swiftly on a wave I had selected for no reason. There was whiteness and grenyess in… — Colm Toibín Blue and green Copy Share Image
“I dreamed of setting it up out here in front of where I am sitting now, on the tripod that I would… — Colm Toibin Dreamed Copy Share Image
“Imaginings and resonances and pain and small longings and prejudices. They mean nothing against the resolute hardness of the sea. They meant… — Colm Tóibín Longings Copy Share Image
“He arranged the ceremony for two o'clock in the afternoon a week before she was to leave. The exam had gone well… — Colm Tóibín Coney island Copy Share Image
“I don't come out of an oral tradition, I come out of silence.” — Colm Tóibín Culture Copy Share Image
in skies of deepening blue the moon, heaven's queen was now afloat — Colm Toibin Blue Copy Share Image
“It had been easier to present a self in full possession of pride and confidence.” — Colm Tóibín Confidence Copy Share Image
“The memory of my name will last longer than the lives of many men.” — Colm Tóibín Longer Copy Share Image
