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Quotes by irish authors
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
Life
Strange
Writing
Creation
Worlds
Else
Sphere
Lodge
More
Force
Still
Private
Affect
Ireland
Than
Legislation
Fiction
Theatrical
Public
Much
Even
Novels
Deeply
Images
Fragile
Imagined
Plays
Speeches
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
Life
Day
Every Day
Every
Too
Write
Exciting
Between
Wrote
Because
Stopped
Where
Barcelona
Ages
All writing is a form of manipulation, of course, but you realize that a plain sentence can actually do so much.
Colm Toibin
You
Writing
Course
Form
Plain
Manipulation
Sentence
Realize
Much
Actually
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
Time
Gay
People
Nothing
Thom
Thomas
Books
Bishop
Out
Sexuality
About
Parent
Had
Between
Like
Know
Until
Read
Course
Although
Were
Died
Childhood
James
Them
Swear
Turned
Who
Compared
Elizabeth
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
Good
You
Age
Solitude
Nothing
Down
Settle
Kids
City
Dublin
Friends
Quiet
Get
Happens
Much
Certain
Certain Age
Your
Evening
Here
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
Success
Writing
Country
Military
Run
Some
Deliberate
Could
Tends
Campaign
Very
Certainly
Novelist
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
First
Half
Down
Else
Books
Would
Slowly
About
Writes
Over
Name
Know
Period
Half Years
She
Because
Said
Editors
Years
Sell
Began
Very
Familiar
Irish
Anything
Anything Else
Them
Turned
Us
Noticed
English
Novel
Twenty
Let Us
Publishers
Two
I think you can get a sort of intensity and an edginess offering nine stories in a book. Competing versions of things.
Colm Toibin
You
Book
Think
Nine
Sort
Versions
Offering
Get
Intensity
Stories
Things
Competing
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
World
Clothes
Those
Glamour
Sort
Boy
Were
Stockings
Listened
Interest
Little
Things
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
See
Had
Dialogue
Been
Done
Where
Using
Describe
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
Good
Home
News
You
Yourself
People
Matter
Good News
Lonely
Think
Those
Tell
One Of The Things
Write
Put
Look
Because
How
How Much
Were
Left
Ireland
Improve
Uplifting
Going
Order
Happened
Them
Realize
Much
Really
Letters
Things
Needed
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
You
Business
People
Party
Before
Sense
Think
Back
Everyone
States
No-One
Knew
Come
Although
Wake
Left
Forever
American
Them
Whole
United
Ever
United States
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
God
Good
Made
Girl
Clothes
Nice
Think
Thinking
Other
Late
Bishop
Out
Would
Priest
Over
Knocking
Housekeeper
Boy
Becoming
Fences
Were
Very
Did
Going
Quite
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
Funny
People
First
Few
Visitor
See
Someone
Since
Know
How
Came
Were
Been
Lot
Australia
Shock
Intelligent
Times
Interesting
Might
Then
Who
Fun
Lived
Differently
Sydney
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
Time
Good
Trust
Try
Before
Distance
Once
Laughing
Would
Write
Never
Had
Allowing
Part
Never Stop
Particular
Sort
Audience
Comic
Occur
Line
Been
Tragic
Get
Stop
Afraid
Order
Next
Next Time
Moments
Play
Bring
Started
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
Determination
Narcissism
Difficult
Think
Pleasure
Hidden
Out
Would
Write
Disapprove
Sort
Deal
Question
Anyway
Grim
Means
Things
Associate
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
Walk
Become
Duty
Believe
Enjoy
Think
Else
Our
We Cannot
Ourselves
Fact
Neuroses
In Fact
Cannot
Who
Away
Right
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
Time
You
Thought
Saw
Signed
Civil
Civil Servant
Inviting
Most
Course
IRA
Up
Campaigns
Exotic
Irish
Middle
Wanted
English
Servant
Bombing
Thing
Ad
Imagine
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
Though
About
Rather
More
Never
Put
Come
Wrote
Because
Territory
South
Sell
Ireland
Very
Than
North
Northern
Northern Ireland
Republic
Might
Much
Even
Novel
Imaginative
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
You
Writing
First
Practice
Style
Few
Slightly
Tennis
Road
Almost
Days
Like
Also
First Of All
Makes
Affects
Up
Uneasy
Get
After
Again
Depressed
Show
Keep
Actually
Start
Start-Up
Need
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
Work
Time
Wait
Defining
Lies
More
Attempting
Know
Readers
Another
Narrative
Narratives
Always
Go
Historian
Historians
Intelligent
May
Grand
While
Sweeping
Tone
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
History
Free
Country
Reading
Past
Own
Thinking
Enough
Else
Everything
Everything Else
Way
Ways
Find
No Country
About
Inspiring
Study
Study History
New
Sake
Ambiguity
New Ways
May
Including
Nuance
Present
Need
The great saints were always great innovators... They had to be very strong people... principled people. And, apart from their principles, with great tenacity they had to have great reserves of patience.
Colm Wilkinson
Great
Patience
People
Strong
Innovators
Strong People
Tenacity
Had
Principled
Principles
Always
Saints
Were
Very
Apart
Reserves
You pray for your enemies.
Colm Wilkinson
You
Enemies
Pray
Pray For
Your
Hal Prince and Andrew actually asked me if I would be interested in continuing with 'Phantom', but obviously I was under contract to 'Les Mis' by then.
Colm Wilkinson
Me
Andrew
Would
Would-Be
Prince
Hal
Obviously
Continuing
Contract
Interested
Then
Asked
Les
Phantom
Actually
The one thing that concerts have done for me is given me the opportunity to get back to sort of do songs that I want to do. It's about enjoying yourself.
Colm Wilkinson
Me
Yourself
Opportunity
Back
One Thing
About
Given
Songs
Sort
Concerts
Get
Done
The One Thing
Want
Thing
Enjoying
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