Quotes by Colm Toibin

Colm Toibin

“One Minus One’”and “Barcelona, 1975” are more or less autobiographical.

Barcelona

Minus

All writing is a form of manipulation, of course, but you realize that a plain sentence can actually do so much.

Manipulation

Realizing

Writing

As I settled down to sleep in that new bed in the dark city, I saw that it was too late now, too late for everything. I would not be given a second chance. In the hours when I woke, I have to tell you that this struck me almost with relief.

Dark

Second Chance

Sleep

Between the ages of 8 and 12 it was difficult to know what my father was saying, and he moved very slowly, and then he died.

Age

Difficult

Father

I do not know why it matters that I should tell the truth to myself at night, why it should matter that the truth should be spoken at least once in the world. Because the world is a place of silence, the sky at night when the birds have gone is a vast silent place. Words will make the slightest difference to the sky at night. They will not brighten it or make it less strange. And the day too has its own deep indifference to anything that is said.

Differences

Night

Sky

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 the mountains. They speak English to foreigners, but what people say to each other is much more important than what they say to you.

People

Speak English

Years

I have to write a first draft with a fountain pen before I type it up as a second.

Firsts

Fountain

Writing

I suppose one should have an integrated personality, but I’ve never really seen the point.

Personality

Should

Should Have

I think you can get a sort of intensity and an edginess offering nine stories in a book. Competing versions of things.

Book

Offering

Thinking

I went to live in Barcelona in 1975, when I was twenty. Even before I went there, I knew more about the Spanish Civil War than I did about the Irish Civil War. I liked Barcelona, and then I grew to like a place in the Catalan Pyrenees called the Pillars, especially an area between the village of Flavors and the high mountains around it.

Barcelona

Mountain

War

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Age

Barcelona

Becoming

Biographies

Block

Blue

Book

Catholic

Cheer

Country

Dark

Differences

Difficult

Father

Firsts

Fountain

Hands

Home

Ideas

Insane

Long

Manipulation

Matter

Might

Military

Minus

Mirrors

Moon

Mountain

Night

Notebook

Offering

Ordinary

Parent

People

Personality

Queens

Real

Realizing

Religious

Republic

Running

School

Second Chance

Should

Should Have

Sky

Sleep

Song

Speak English

The Future Blueprint

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The Home Therapist: Anti Anxiety

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Quotes by Colm Toibin

Colm Toibin

“One Minus One’”and “Barcelona, 1975” are more or less autobiographical.

All writing is a form of manipulation, of course, but you realize that a plain sentence can actually do so much.

As I settled down to sleep in that new bed in the dark city, I saw that it was too late now, too late for everything. I would not be given a second chance. In the hours when I woke, I have to tell you that this struck me almost with relief.

Between the ages of 8 and 12 it was difficult to know what my father was saying, and he moved very slowly, and then he died.

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 the mountains. They speak English to foreigners, but what people say to each other is much more important than what they say to you.

I have to write a first draft with a fountain pen before I type it up as a second.

I suppose one should have an integrated personality, but I’ve never really seen the point.

I think you can get a sort of intensity and an edginess offering nine stories in a book. Competing versions of things.

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Topics by Colm Toibin

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The Future Blueprint

The Home Therapist: Anti Anxiety

The Autobiography

The Behaviour Diary

The Dating Diary

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