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 ToibinAnyone 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 ToibinAll writing is a form of manipulation, of course, but you realize that a plain sentence can actually do so much.
Colm Toibin