“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
“It had been easier to present a self in full possession of pride and confidence.” — Colm Tóibín Confidence Copy Share Image
“I shall tell him that being partly invisible is merely a small aspect of my charm.” — Colm Tóibín Invisible 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
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
“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
“Ending a novel is almost like putting a child to sleep – it can't be done abruptly." [ Colm Tóibín, Novelist –… — Colm Tóibín Art Copy Share Image
I don't think we have a right to enjoy our neuroses; in fact, I believe that we have a duty not to.… — Colm Toibin Away 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 Time 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
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 Anything Copy Share Image
I think fiction lends itself to messiness rather than the ideal, and plays well with the ironies surrounding what happens versus what… — Colm Toibin Fiction Copy Share Image
“Even when she woke in the night and thought about it, she did not allow herself to conclude that she did not… — Colm Tóibín Heart Copy Share Image
As I settled down to sleep in that new bed in the dark city, I saw that it was too late now,… — Colm Toibin Bed Copy Share Image
“Here in this cemetery, which they began to stroll around once more, the state of not-knowing and not-feeling which belonged to the… — Colm Tóibín Cemetery 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
Between the time I was 16 until I was about 20, the books I read were by people like Thomas Mann, James… — Colm Toibin About 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 Affect Copy Share Image
The Roman Catholic Church and its rituals were so much part of life that, although my parents would often question a small… — Colm Toibin Art of life 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… — Colm Toibin Becoming Copy Share Image
“Trollope and Balzac, Zola and Dickens would, he felt, have become bitter old preachers, or mad hairy schoolmasters had they been born… — Colm Tóibín Trollope Copy Share Image
“I saw him trying to struggle and call out. But because of the robe, he could not move and his voice could… — Colm Tóibín Agamemnon 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 Alone 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 Change 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 Empty mind 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
I like it that they [disciples] feed me and pay for my clothes and protect me. And in return I will do… — Colm Toibin Anecdotes 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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
in skies of deepening blue the moon, heaven's queen was now afloat — Colm Toibin Blue Copy Share Image
“I don't come out of an oral tradition, I come out of silence.” — Colm Tóibín Culture Copy Share Image
![“Ending a novel is almost like putting a child to sleep – it can't be done abruptly." [ Colm Tóibín, Novelist – Portrait of the Artist , The Guardian, 19 February 2013]” quote by Colm Tóibín](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/f03/colm-toibin-3377_art_ending-a-novel-is-almost-like-putting-a_2409916.jpg)
![“...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)
![“I like it that they [disciples] feed me and pay for my clothes and protect me. And in return I will do for them what I can, but no more than that. Just as I cannot breathe the breath of another or help the heart of someone else to beat or their bones not to weaken or their flesh not to shrivel, I…” quote by Colm Toibin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/c85/colm-toibin-3377_anecdotes_i-like-it-that-they-disciples-feed-me-an_3082960.jpg)
