John McGovern taught me that it's OK to write repeatedly about the same things. Colm Toibin More Quotes by Colm Toibin More Quotes From Colm Toibin 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 military running country All writing is a form of manipulation, of course, but you realize that a plain sentence can actually do so much. Colm Toibin manipulation realizing writing 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 strong suffering writing 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 intelligent self lying Life has a funny way of becoming ordinary as soon as it can. Colm Toibin becoming ordinary way If you have to read to cheer yourself up, read biographies of writers who went insane. Colm Toibin biographies insane cheer 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 barcelona age writing I suppose one should have an integrated personality, but I've never really seen the point. Colm Toibin personality should should-have Some of our loves and attachments are elemental and beyond our choosing, and for that very reason they come spiced with pain and regret and need and hollowness and a feeling as close to anger as I will ever be able to manage. Colm Toibin regret pain attachment 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 real home school I live in words. I like looking at things, but I don't have a strong visual imagination. Colm Toibin visuals strong imagination She was lonely without Blunt, but she was lonelier at the idea that the world went on as though she had not loved him. Colm Toibin lonely world ideas 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 sleep children needs I have to write a first draft with a fountain pen before I type it up as a second. Colm Toibin fountain writing firsts 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. Colm Toibin differences sky night 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 writing mean 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 treasure matter world Writer's block! It doesn't exist. You just long for ideas to go away so you have an idea of peace. Colm Toibin block long ideas 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 writing art It is important to find a publisher and equally important not to be noticed until your third or fourth book. Colm Toibin thirds important book
