“She has gone back to Brooklyn,' her mother would say. And, as the train rolled past Macmire Bridge on its way towards… — Colm Toibín Decision making 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
“He had grown fat on solitude, he thought, and had learned to expect nothing from the day but at best a dull… — Colm Tóibín Contentment Copy Share Image
“You know that you are the only person who shakes his head in exasperation when I insist on making jokes and small… — Colm Toibin Bitter 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
“You have asked two questions, and I will answer them separately,” Gray said. “Trollope writes with precision and feeling about love and… — Colm Tóibín Love Copy Share Image
“His consolation was that at least he had known her as the world had not, and the pain of living without her… — Colm Tóibín Consolation 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 Life 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
in skies of deepening blue the moon, heaven's queen was now afloat — Colm Toibin Blue 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
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
It is important to find a publisher and equally important not to be noticed until your third or fourth book. — Colm Toibin Book 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 Darkness Copy Share Image
“It was my companion, my strange friend who woke me in the night and again in the morning and who stayed close… — Colm Tóibín Companion 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
“She wondered if she was alone in having nothing between the dullness of her own days and the sheer brilliance of this… — Colm Tóibín Dullness Copy Share Image
I think you can get a sort of intensity and an edginess offering nine stories in a book. Competing versions of things. — Colm Toibin Book Copy Share Image
I suppose one should have an integrated personality, but I've never really seen the point. — Colm Toibin Idea 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
“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 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
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 that was one of the things that happened, especially in Ireland, that you left in order to improve yourself, and… — Colm Toibin Because Copy Share Image
“Q: What's the biggest myth about writing? A: That there's any wildness attached to it. Writing tends to be very deliberate." [… — Colm Tóibín Creative process Copy Share Image
Look at Austen. In her novels, you get a dance, followed by an encounter, followed by a letter, then a period of… — Colm Toibin Austen Copy Share Image
I never listen to music when I am writing. It would be impossible. I listen to Bach in the mornings, mostly choral… — Colm Toibin Aria Copy Share Image
I write with a sort of grim determination to deal with things that are hidden and difficult, and this means, I think,… — Colm Toibin Deals Copy Share Image
“Andersen was perhaps too young to know how memory and regret can mingle, how much sorrow can be held within, and how… — Colm Tóibín Memory Copy Share Image
In my 20s, as I began to travel in Europe, I found comfort in religious paintings. Even though my own belief in… — Colm Toibin Art Copy Share Image
I've never put Northern Ireland into a novel because it's not my territory. I come from the South, so my imaginative territory… — Colm Toibin Books 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
“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
“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
“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
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
“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
“We had used up all of our time. And I wondered if that made any difference to my mother then, as she… — Colm Tóibín Life Copy Share Image
The novel space is a pure space. I'm nobody once I go into that room. I'm not gay, I'm not bald, I'm… — Colm Toibin Anybody 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)
![“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)
