Colm Tóibín
Born: 01-01-1955
Colm Tóibín is an acclaimed Irish novelist, essayist, and critic known for his evocative storytelling and exploration of themes like identity, family, and exile. Born in 1955 in Enniscorthy, Ireland, Tóibín has penned notable works such as "Brooklyn" and "The Master." His writing, often rich in historical and cultural context, has garnered numerous awards, including the Costa Novel Award, and he has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize multiple times.
Book summaries for books written by Colm Tóibín
Quotes
He had come to understand that it was the ordinary things that made life bearable, the way a child sat on a chair, the way someone picked up a newspaper and folded it, or how a woman spoke quietly to another woman on a bus.
The masters he admired were the ones who seemed to change the world simply by being themselves.
He had always thought of himself as remote from the world, someone who stood back and watched, but in fact, he had allowed himself to be formed by what he had seen and heard.
To live alone, he had discovered, required a certain amount of stoicism, a practical grasp of one's own limitations, and a sense of the importance of keeping busy.
He had no interest in telling his own story. He knew that it was in the stories of others that life became apparent.
He knew that he had learned something about the secret life of people, about the way in which they could be both separate and together, how each one could be so distant and unreachable, and yet also part of the same pattern.
He had changed, he had become something that could not be undone, and he knew that there was a limit to how much he could explain.
He had sought out the company of others, but he had also learned to value solitude.
He had come to understand that words were a way of revealing, but also of hiding, and that there were things that could never be said.
He had discovered that he could not live without a certain amount of sadness, that it was the sadness that made him feel alive.
He had learned that love was not something that could be held onto, but that it could be felt, even in its absence.
He had come to understand that there were no simple answers, that life was a series of choices, each one leading to another, and that it was up to each person to find their own way.