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.
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Colm Toibin:
I wrote every day between the ages of 12 and 20 when I stopped because I went to Barcelona, where lColm Toibin:
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All writing is a form of manipulation, of course, but you realize that a plain sentence can actuallColm Toibin:
Between the time I was 16 until I was about 20, the books I read were by people like Thomas Mann, JColm Toibin:
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I suppose one should have an integrated personality, but I've never really seen the point.Colm Toibin:
I have to write a first draft with a fountain pen before I type it up as a second.Colm Toibin:
Solitude is good in the evening. Dublin is a quiet city when you get to a certain age, when your fr