Colm Toibin Quotes
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.

Quotes to Explore
-
What I felt was, if you spend your life just writing fiction, you are going to falsify your material. And the fictional form was going to force you to do things with the material, to dramatize it in a certain way. I thought nonfiction gave one a chance to explore the world, the other world, the world that one didn't know fully.
-
Remain calm, serene, always in command of yourself. You will then find out how easy it is to get along.
-
You can't deny RCA's past and its history. I was also on Capitol Records, so I have that past history.
-
I personally don't think you should ever date someone you work with, will work with, etc. I won't ever date an actor.
-
Yeah, I'm from Jersey; it's almost like I was automatically born a Nets fan.
-
Being born in a duck yard does not matter, if only you are hatched from a swan's egg.
-
For many, the hijab represents modesty, piety and devotion to God, and I truly respect that. But the hijab should not be used as a means of applying social pressure on people.
-
The work on ants has profoundly affected the way I think about humans.
-
I still owe a duty of loyalty to my clients and former clients, so I cannot specify which clients I did not especially find congenial, but the cause was the same.
-
Bombino's a super modest guy, very nice. His whole crew is a bunch of characters and he's definitely the Grand Poobah. I don't think the other guys are that much younger than him, but he definitely feels like the wise man; you just sort of get that sense when you're around him. He doesn't say that much but he's humble and well-respected.
-
The world is indeed a mixture of truth and make-believe. Discard the make-believe and take the truth.
-
We had times in '66 and '67 when we would pick up a platoon of privates out of the receiving barracks the week before we even graduated the platoon that we were on!
-
The important thing is to be there, score when needed. It's better if the goals are beautiful, better still if they are important.
-
When a guy tells me I'm cute, it's not something desirable. Cute is more like what you want your pet to be.
-
Your position never gives you the right to command. It only imposes on you the duty of so living your life that others can receive your orders without being humiliated.
-
Girls shouldn't drink because their bodies are not made for drinking and smoking.
-
Everything starts as somebody's daydream.
-
The easiest thing to do in the world is pull the covers up over your head and go back to sleep.
-
Shameless self-publicity works, of course: living your life as a soap opera.
-
I don't share the view that China and the U.S. need to reach some kind of strategic accommodation to carve up the Asia-Pacific region - that is an arrogant proposition and deeply insulting to other countries in the region, including Japan and potentially also India and Indonesia.
-
There's a difference between a pop star and an artist. Pop stars have to be perfect all the time; an artist is allowed, on occasion, to suck. And I put myself in that category because I sometimes suck. I'm not trying to please the masses. It's not going to happen, so I don't try.
-
All I try to do in the press is to be honest about something that I really care about.
-
Jimmy Grants is my first stop every time I go home to Australia. They make the best souvlakis you have ever tasted.
-
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.