“I remember too much; I am like the air on a calm day as it holds itself still, letting nothing escape.” — Colm Tóibín Copy Share Image
“It was like the arrival of night when you knew that you would never see anything in daylight again.” — Colm Tóibín Daylight Copy Share Image
“You must live with what you did,’ Leander said. ‘What you did is all you have.” — Colm Tóibín Live Copy Share Image
“The memory of my name will last longer than the lives of many men.” — Colm Tóibín Longer Copy Share Image
If you have to read to cheer yourself up, read biographies of writers who went insane. — Colm Toibin Biographies Copy Share Image
“I don't come out of an oral tradition, I come out of silence.” — Colm Tóibín Culture 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
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
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
People's interest in glamour and clothes and nylon stockings and all those things were, when I was a little boy, the sort… — Colm Toibin Boy 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 Book Copy Share Image
Describe character using dialogue. Describe character using what the characters see or do or think, but not what they had done or… — Colm Toibin Been 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
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
“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
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
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 Australia Copy Share Image
I still have a stammer that I can control by not opening a sentence with a hard consonant, or by concentrating for… — Colm Toibin Absolute 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
“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
“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
“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 Beauty 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 Books Copy Share Image
John McGovern taught me that it's OK to write repeatedly about the same things. — Colm Toibin About Copy Share Image
Between the ages of 8 and 12 it was difficult to know what my father was saying, and he moved very slowly,… — Colm Toibin Age Copy Share Image
I work very deliberately, with a plan. But sometimes I come to a point that I planned as the end and it… — Colm Toibin Children 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… — Colm Toibin Age Copy Share Image
The best thing about New York is working late into the night. At 1 in the morning on a Saturday, to be… — Colm Toibin About Copy Share Image
“In the meantime, when I wake in the night, I want more. I want what happened not to have happened, to have… — Colm Tóibín Meantime Copy Share Image
History is a way of interpreting, rather than, say, knowing, the past. It is usually a set of disputes between those who… — Colm Toibin Access 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.… — Colm Toibin About 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… — Colm Tóibín Told Copy Share Image
“I don’t go in for change. It is not one of my subjects. I have always taken the view that noticing change… — Colm Tóibín Change 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 who owned books but did not open them. For a fee, books would be handled, with passages underlined or spines damaged or words such as ‘Rubbish’ or ‘Yes, but cf Homer, Od…” quote by Colm Tóibin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/586/colm-toibin-3377_books_in-one-of-his-irish-times-columns-writte_684539.jpg)
