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 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
The problem is once you've written the opening paragraph and worked out how the rest of the story will go in your… — Colm Toibin Copy Share Image
I was first in Sydney in 1993, and have been a few times since then. For someone who didn't know Australia, it… — Colm Toibin Copy Share Image
I have to write a first draft with a fountain pen before I type it up as a second. — Colm Toibin Copy Share Image
I am violently untidy. My desk is overcrowded. I write my first drafts in longhand in a long notebook using a plastic… — 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
