Colm Toibin Quotes

Powerful Colm Toibin for Daily Growth

About Colm Toibin

Colm Toibin, born on March 30, 1955, in Enniscorthy, County Wexford, Ireland, is a renowned Irish novelist, short-story writer, essayist, playwright, and academic. His poignant prose and deep exploration of human emotions have garnered him widespread acclaim. Toibin's literary journey began early, with an interest in literature fueled by the works of James Joyce, William Trevor, and John McGahern. He pursued his passion at University College Dublin and Trinity College Dublin, where he studied English Literature. In 1987, Toibin published his first novel, "The South," which was followed by "The Heather Blazing" in 1992. However, it was his third novel, "The House of the Spirits" (1990), that marked his international breakthrough. This reimagining of Isabel Allende's Chilean classic was a critical and commercial success, establishing Toibin as a significant voice in contemporary literature. Toibin's masterpiece, "The Master," a fictionalized account of the life of Henry James, was published in 2004. The novel won the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, further cementing his reputation. His other notable works include "Brooklyn" (2009), which was adapted into an award-winning film, and "The Testament of Mary" (2012), a poignant portrayal of Mary, mother of Jesus. Toibin's works are characterized by their exploration of Irish identity, homosexuality, and the complexities of human relationships. His rich narrative style and ability to delve into the emotional lives of his characters have endeared him to readers worldwide. He currently resides in Dublin and New York City, where he continues to write and teach at Columbia University.

Interpretations of Popular Quotes

"Love is a place between you and someone else and it changes everything."

This quote by Colm Toibin suggests that love is not just an emotion, but a transformative space or relationship between two individuals. It's a unique and intimate connection that alters the perspectives, feelings, and actions of those involved, setting them apart from their experiences without it. Love isn't merely a passive state; it actively changes and enriches the lives of those who experience it.

"We live in stories, and we die in stories, and love is the only story worth telling."

This quote suggests that our lives are fundamentally shaped by narratives, from the stories we create about ourselves to the tales others tell about us. In essence, we find meaning in life through these stories, which gives them a profound significance. Toibin emphasizes that love is the most powerful and important story we can experience and share, as it not only defines our personal journeys but also has the potential to connect us deeply with others. Love stories, therefore, have the unique capacity to encapsulate the universal human experience in a way that few other narratives can.

"Everything that is real changes. Everything that is perfect never changes."

This quote by Colm Toibin suggests a profound distinction between the transient nature of reality and the unchanging quality of perfection. The "real" refers to aspects of life that are subject to change and evolution, reflecting our impermanent world. Conversely, "perfection," which never changes, signifies an ideal, flawless state or something that transcends time and is beyond alteration. This quote encourages us to seek for the perfect in our ever-changing world, hinting at a pursuit of ideals that remain constant amidst life's fluctuations.

"Secrets are like hidden rivers in a town: they shape its life, but nobody knows they're there."

This quote implies that secrets, though unseen, have profound influences on people and communities. Just as hidden rivers can shape the landscape, shaping the course of a town's development, secrets, too, can subtly yet powerfully influence the lives of individuals and the dynamics within a community. However, unlike visible rivers, these secrets often remain unknown to those affected by them.

"A great friendship begins when you are able to say to someone, 'What's going on?' and both of you can really respond with honesty."

This quote suggests that a strong friendship is forged through openness, trust, and mutual understanding. When individuals within a friendship can genuinely share their thoughts, feelings, or circumstances ("What's going on?") without fear of judgment or reprisal, they demonstrate the foundation of honesty and vulnerability essential to developing a deep bond. The ability to respond with sincerity in return validates the trust placed, fostering a relationship built on mutual respect and understanding. This quote highlights the importance of authenticity and transparency in cultivating meaningful friendships that can withstand life's challenges.

Everyone who's in America spends the first few years not experiencing it. The person is frightened by the newness of the place and doesn't see things. Her emotional universe becomes the entire universe. And then when she thinks of home, her distance in space can seem like a distance in time.

- Colm Toibin

Distance, Years, Entire, Newness

I've never put Northern Ireland into a novel because it's not my territory. I come from the South, so my imaginative territory is very much the Republic of Ireland rather than the North. Even though, if I wrote a novel about the North, it might sell more.

- Colm Toibin

Republic, Very, South, Northern Ireland

While historians may go on attempting grand, sweeping and defining narratives, they work in a time when readers know that another narrative always lies in wait, and that the more intelligent an historian is, the more tentative and self-scrutinizing the tone.

- Colm Toibin

Wait, Tone, Another, Defining

The next time I write a play - in order to get audience trust for a particular sort of tragic line, I'll try to bring the audience a good distance before that. Part of that is allowing comic moments to occur. I had been afraid of that - that once the audience started laughing in the play, they would never stop.

- Colm Toibin

Trust, Play, Next, Next Time

The problem is once you've written the opening paragraph and worked out how the rest of the story will go in your head, there's nothing in it for you. I write in longhand using disposable fountain pens on the right-hand side of the notebook for the first draft, then I rewrite some of the sentences and paragraphs on the left-hand side.

- Colm Toibin

Fountain, Some, Paragraph, Rewrite

I did think of becoming a priest quite late on, when other boys were thinking of knocking over fences and going out with girls. I would have made a very good bishop: nice housekeeper, nice clothes - god, the clothes.

- Colm Toibin

Other, Becoming, Very, Fences

I am violently untidy. My desk is overcrowded. I write my first drafts in longhand in a long notebook using a plastic throwaway fountain pen. Then I work on a word processor using a different desk and a different room.

- Colm Toibin

Long, Fountain, I Write, Longhand

I still have a stammer that I can control by not opening a sentence with a hard consonant, or by concentrating for a moment, breathing softly down. Growing up, the 'Our Father' was lovely, made for me, the 'Hail Mary' was gorgeous, and 'Glory Be to the Father' was an absolute nightmare.

- Colm Toibin

Father, Down, Concentrating, Stammer

Look at Austen. In her novels, you get a dance, followed by an encounter, followed by a letter, then a period of solitude. No flashbacks and no backstory. Let's have no more back story!

- Colm Toibin

More, Back, Period, Solitude

Solitude is good in the evening. Dublin is a quiet city when you get to a certain age, when your friends settle down and have kids. Nothing much happens here.

- Colm Toibin

City, Here, Dublin, Solitude

My first novel was turned down by about twenty publishers over a period of two and a half years. Because my name is Irish and would not be familiar to English editors, one of them said: 'If she writes anything else, do let us know.' Slowly, very slowly, the books began to sell and be noticed.

- Colm Toibin

Very, Half, Turned, Writes

The best thing about New York is working late into the night. At 1 in the morning on a Saturday, to be still working, there's an immense satisfaction in being enclosed by it.

- Colm Toibin

New, Saturday, Still, Immense

I think fiction lends itself to messiness rather than the ideal, and plays well with the ironies surrounding what happens versus what should happen.

- Colm Toibin

Think, Happen, Surrounding, Versus

I never listen to music when I am writing. It would be impossible. I listen to Bach in the mornings, mostly choral music; also some Handel, mostly songs and arias; I like Schubert's and Beethoven's chamber music and Sibelius' symphonies; for opera, I listen to Mozart and in recent years Wagner.

- Colm Toibin

Some, Symphonies, Mostly, Mozart

I think that was one of the things that happened, especially in Ireland, that you left in order to improve yourself, and you couldn't write home and tell people, 'Look, I'm really lonely,' because you'd realize how much those letters were going to matter, that you needed to put good news or uplifting news into them.

- Colm Toibin

I Think, One Of The Things, Uplifting

John McGovern taught me that it's OK to write repeatedly about the same things.

- Colm Toibin

Same, Taught, Repeatedly, OK

The Roman Catholic Church and its rituals were so much part of life that, although my parents would often question a small matter of dogma and none of us seemed more religious than anyone else, no one ever questioned the rituals or the basic tenets of belief.

- Colm Toibin

Small, Religious, Roman, Catholic Church

In Ireland, novels and plays still have a strange force. The writing of fiction and the creation of theatrical images can affect life there more powerfully and stealthily than speeches, or even legislation. Imagined worlds can lodge deeply in the private sphere, dislodging much else, especially when the public sphere is fragile.

- Colm Toibin

Private, Theatrical, Worlds, Sphere

I feel just fine about ignoring or bypassing the rights of people I have known and loved to be rendered faithfully, or to be left in peace, and out of novels.

- Colm Toibin

Feel, About, Faithfully, Novels

Three of my novels and a good number of my short stories are told from the point of view of men. I was brought up in a house of women.

- Colm Toibin

Three, Stories, Brought, Novels

The old Victorian laws against homosexuality were still on the statute books until the early 1990s. As a gay man living in Ireland, I and people like me found it easy to feel less than citizens.

- Colm Toibin

Feel, Against, Homosexuality, 1990s

History is a way of interpreting, rather than, say, knowing, the past. It is usually a set of disputes between those who have access to the same sources. It depends on ideology as much as voting in an election does.

- Colm Toibin

Access, Set, Interpreting, Disputes

I said that when I looked at photographs of the firefighters who went into the Twin Towers, their faces looked to me like Irish faces. I hadn't yet learnt how careful outsiders have to be when talking about race in America, and I'd put my foot in it. Someone stood up and said aggressively, 'What do you mean by Irish faces?'

- Colm Toibin

Irish, Careful, About, Towers

It may be enough to study history in all its nuance and ambiguity for its own sake. But there is no country free of the need to find new ways of reading the past as an inspiring way of thinking about everything else, including the present.

- Colm Toibin

Country, Study, Nuance, Everything Else

When a book comes from the publisher and you see it for the first time... Of course it's not remotely like seeing a baby for the first time, but I can remember with each book what room I was in when I opened it. That would be excitement, though, I think. Not pride.

- Colm Toibin

Book, I Can, I Think, Publisher

It is important to find a publisher and equally important not to be noticed until your third or fourth book.

- Colm Toibin

Important, Find, Third, Publisher

When I was 19, I thought I wanted to be an English civil servant. It was the most exotic thing at the time - can you imagine, in the middle of the IRA bombing campaigns? I saw an ad inviting Irish applicants for an induction course, so I signed up.

- Colm Toibin

Thought, Civil Servant, Exotic

You create a world away from home and make new rooms for yourself. But when you arrive back home in your old rooms, the world you've made for yourself ceases to be real. Everything seems to crumble. Anyone who's been sent away to boarding school can understand that.

- Colm Toibin

Been, Crumble, Rooms, Ceases

I write with a sort of grim determination to deal with things that are hidden and difficult, and this means, I think, that pleasure is out of the question. I would associate this with narcissism anyway, and I would disapprove of it.

- Colm Toibin

Think, Deal, Means, Narcissism

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 not Irish. I'm not anybody. I'm nobody. I'm the guy telling the story, and the only person that matters is the person reading that story, the target. It's to get that person to feel what I'm trying to dramatize.

- Colm Toibin

Irish, Anybody, Telling, Bald

People love talking about writers as storytellers, but I hate being called that: it suggests I got it from my grandmother or something, when my writing really comes out of silence. If a storyteller came up to me, I'd run away.

- Colm Toibin

Love, Away, About, Storytellers

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.

- Colm Toibin

Mountains, Other, Foreigners, Learnt

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.

- Colm Toibin

Mountains, Pillars, Flavors, Twenty

You have to keep writing. It's almost like practice, almost like tennis, that actually after a few days of not writing, first of all it makes you slightly depressed and uneasy, but it also affects the style when you start up again. You need to get the show on the road.

- Colm Toibin

Practice, Slightly, Almost, First Of All

I lived in the Republic of Ireland. I wrote a book about the North but as an outsider. The hatreds there were not mine. I never felt them. I liked how open in most ways Catalan nationalism was, compared to Irish nationalism. I disliked the violence and cruelty in Ireland.

- Colm Toibin

Book, Republic, North, Disliked

The sentences I write have their roots in song and poetry, and take their bearings from music and painting, as much as from the need to impart mere information, or mirror anything. I am not a realist writer, even if I seem like one.

- Colm Toibin

Mirror, Realist, I Write, Impart

Writer's block! It doesn't exist. You just long for ideas to go away so you have an idea of peace.

- Colm Toibin

Go, Away, Idea, Block

Anyone who works in the arts knows, if you're writing a novel or a play or anything, you have to be ready for someone to say, 'Your time is up.'

- Colm Toibin

Play, Say, Works, Novel

I work very deliberately, with a plan. But sometimes I come to a point that I planned as the end and it needs softening. Ending a novel is almost like putting a child to sleep - it can't be done abruptly.

- Colm Toibin

Needs, Deliberately, Very, Novel

In my 20s, as I began to travel in Europe, I found comfort in religious paintings. Even though my own belief in Catholic dogma had been shaken and weakened, I found that the beauty and the richness of the art still held me.

- Colm Toibin

Beauty, Been, Religious, Catholic

People's interest in glamour and clothes and nylon stockings and all those things were, when I was a little boy, the sort of world that I listened to.

- Colm Toibin

People, Boy, Sort, Glamour

Writing tends to be very deliberate. A novelist could probably run a military campaign with some success. They could certainly run a country.

- Colm Toibin

Some, Very, Certainly, Tends

I wrote every day between the ages of 12 and 20 when I stopped because I went to Barcelona, where life was too exciting to write.

- Colm Toibin

Every Day, Stopped, Wrote, Barcelona

'One Minus One' and 'Barcelona, 1975' are more or less autobiographical.

- Colm Toibin

More, Minus, More Or Less, Barcelona

Between the time I was 16 until I was about 20, the books I read were by people like Thomas Mann, James Baldwin, Thom Gunn, Elizabeth Bishop. All gay, of course, although I swear I didn't know that at the time. Yet all of them, it turned out, had had a parent who died during their childhood. Sexuality is nothing compared to that.

- Colm Toibin

Parent, Sexuality, Turned, Thomas

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.

- Colm Toibin

Father, Very, Moved, Slowly

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

More, Other, Side, Readers

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

- Colm Toibin

Sentence, Actually, Form, Realize

I was first in Sydney in 1993, and have been a few times since then. For someone who didn't know Australia, it came as a shock how intelligent, interesting and funny the people were. If I lived there I might see it differently, but as a visitor it was a lot of fun.

- Colm Toibin

How, Been, Lot, Sydney

I'm slightly influenced by sport in that I like the idea of trying, like an athlete, to keep absolutely ready. That's an emotional thing, almost. I don't mean physically, although I play tennis. But you try to keep yourself ready.

- Colm Toibin

Play, Slightly, Almost, Tennis

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

- Colm Toibin

Fountain, Before, Draft, Pen

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

- Colm Toibin

Think, Competing, Nine, Versions

Describe character using dialogue. Describe character using what the characters see or do or think, but not what they had done or where they had been.

- Colm Toibin

Character, Think, Characters, Dialogue

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

- Colm Toibin

Personality, Never, Should, Suppose

The only routine I have is that I finish everything I start. I wake up early every day - about 6.30 A.M. - but I do not work every day. I could laze for a day or two, but I wouldn't do it for three.

- Colm Toibin

Work, Every Day, Could, Finish

I don't think we have a right to enjoy our neuroses; in fact, I believe that we have a duty not to. But we cannot walk away from ourselves. Who else is there to become?

- Colm Toibin

Think, Fact, Away, Duty

Life has a funny way of becoming ordinary as soon as it can.

- Colm Toibin

Life, Becoming, Funny Way, Ordinary

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 a pleasure.

- Colm Toibin

Work, Strong, Suffering, Pull

I think the whole business of people emigrating was that no one ever told them, although everyone knew, especially if it was to the United States, that it was forever, and the party before you left was called an 'American wake,' in the sense that they knew you wouldn't come back.

- Colm Toibin

United, I Think, Before, Wake

I live in words. I like looking at things, but I don't have a strong visual imagination.

- Colm Toibin

Strong, Words, Like, Visual

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