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 ToibinRead
Everyone who's in America spends the first few years not experiencing it. The person is frightened by the newness of the place and doesn't see things. Her emotional universe becomes the entire universe. And then when she thinks of home, her distance in space can seem like a distance in time.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on the initial alienation and inward focus experienced by newcomers to America, highlighting both emotional and physical distances from their homes.
Colm Toibin's quote eloquently describes the experience of immigrants who arrive in America filled with fear and uncertainty. The initial years are often marked by a sense of isolation as they struggle to familiarize themselves with a new environment, leading to an introspective emotional state. This inward focus can create a perception that their former home has drifted away not just in space but also in time, underscoring how dislocation can alter one’s sense of belonging and reality.
Themes
ImmigrationFearNewnessHomeEmotionalDistance
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a speech about the immigrant experience at a cultural event.
More from Colm Toibin
All quotes →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 ToibinRead
History is a way of interpreting, rather than, say, knowing, the past. It is usually a set of disputes between those who have access to the same sources. It depends on ideology as much as voting in an election does.
Colm ToibinRead
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 ToibinRead
People love talking about writers as storytellers, but I hate being called that: it suggests I got it from my grandmother or something, when my writing really comes out of silence. If a storyteller came up to me, I'd run away.
Colm ToibinRead
It really matters to writers to find and treasure readers, all the more when they're on the other side of the world.
Colm ToibinRead
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