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
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 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 still have a stammer that I can control by not opening a sentence with a hard consonant, or by concentrating for… — 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… — Colm Toibin 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 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… — Colm Toibin 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 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 Copy Share Image
The next time I write a play - in order to get audience trust for a particular sort of tragic line, I'll… — Colm Toibin 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 Copy Share Image
“The rest of the time he entertained all the guilt that wished to call, carried in by the wind through the darkness,… — Colm Tóibín Copy Share Image
“We had used up all of our time. And I wondered if that made any difference to my mother then, as she… — Colm Tóibín Copy Share Image
Anyone who works in the arts knows, if you're writing a novel or a play or anything, you have to be ready… — Colm Toibin Copy Share Image
“If water can be changed into wine and the dead can be brought back, then I want time pushed back.” — Colm Tóibín 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
When I was 19, I thought I wanted to be an English civil servant. It was the most exotic thing at the… — Colm Toibin Copy Share Image
“For the first time in years, he felt the deep sadness of exile, knowing that he was alone here, an outsider, and… — Colm Tóibín 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 Copy Share Image
“A novelist's job is almost to be a stupid as possible, except in the cunning moment when you need to structure something,… — Colm Tóibín Copy Share Image
“On one of the nights during my journey I wandered out under the sky which was lit with stars and I believed… — Colm Tóibín 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
