She was lonely without Blunt, but she was lonelier at the idea that the world went on as though she had not… — Colm Toibin Copy Share Image
“I remember too much; I am like the air on a calm day as it holds itself still, letting nothing escape.” — Colm Tóibín Calm Copy Share Image
I wrote every day between the ages of 12 and 20 when I stopped because I went to Barcelona, where life was… — Colm Toibin Age 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
Writing tends to be very deliberate. A novelist could probably run a military campaign with some success. They could certainly run a… — 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… — Colm Toibin Books Copy Share Image
I feel just fine about ignoring or bypassing the rights of people I have known and loved to be rendered faithfully, or… — Colm Toibin 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 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… — Colm Toibin 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
I write with a sort of grim determination to deal with things that are hidden and difficult, and this means, I think,… — 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… — Colm Toibin Ambiguity 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
Some of our loves and attachments are elemental and beyond our choosing, and for that very reason they come spiced with pain… — Colm Toibin 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 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
“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
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 Mustaches Copy Share Image
“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
“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
“As his widow, she knew who she was and what she had inherited. She had loved him in her way and sometimes… — Colm Toibin Heart Copy Share Image
I'm slightly influenced by sport in that I like the idea of trying, like an athlete, to keep absolutely ready. That's an… — 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 Access 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 Copy Share Image
I lived in the Republic of Ireland. I wrote a book about the North but as an outsider. The hatreds there were… — Colm Toibin 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
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
My first novel was turned down by about twenty publishers over a period of two and a half years. Because my name… — Colm Toibin 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 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 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 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
“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
People love talking about writers as storytellers, but I hate being called that: it suggests I got it from my grandmother or… — Colm Toibin Copy Share Image
You have to keep writing. It's almost like practice, almost like tennis, that actually after a few days of not writing, first… — Colm Toibin Copy Share Image
“I do not care much about the mysteries of the universe, unless they come to me in words, or in music maybe,… — Colm Tóibín Beauty 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 think the whole business of people emigrating was that no one ever told them, although everyone knew, especially if it was… — Colm Toibin 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
