“ We had used up all of our time. And I wondered if that made any difference to my mother then, as she lay awake in the hospital those last few nights of her life: we had used up all of our time. Colm Toibin
“ Rose appeared to be in a sort of dream. As Eilis watched her, it struck her that she had never seen Rose look so beautiful. And then it occurred to her that she was already feeling that she would need… Colm Toibin
“ Once more she noted the hectoring tone, as though she were a child, unable to make proper decisions. Colm Toibin
“ In future, she hoped, fewer people would call. In future, once the boys went to bed, she might have the house to herself more often. She would learn how to spend these hours. In the peace of these win… Colm Toibin
“ I don’t go in for change. It is not one of my subjects. I have always taken the view that noticing change is a mistake. I notice what is directly in front of me. Colm Toibin
“ Eilis was fascinated by [...] his sweet duplicity in giving no sign of what had happened before. She was almost glad to know that he had secrets and had ways of calmly keeping them. Colm Toibin
“ She had made a decision for herself, the idea that she had asked no one’s advice. It was the first time since she had sold the house in Cush that such a chance had come so easily, and she was glad she… Colm Toibin
“ She loved them, each of them, and found the differences between the four brothers intriguing, but sometimes she found the pleasure of being alone after a lunch or a supper with them greater than the p… Colm Toibin
“ May Lacey, wisps of thin grey hair appearing from under her hat, her scarf still around her neck, sat opposite Nora in the back room and began to talk. After a while, the boys went upstairs; Conor, wh… Colm Toibin
“ I do not know why it matters that I should tell the truth to myself at night, why it should matter that the truth should be spoken at least once in the world. Because the world is a place of silence,… Colm Toibin
“ Carefully, she went back up the stairs and found that if she moved along the first landing she would be able to see him from above. Somehow, she thought, if she could look at him, take him in clearly… Colm Toibin
“ So this was what being alone was like, she thought. … It was this wandering in a sea of people with the anchor lifted, and all of it oddly pointless and confusing. Colm Toibin
“ It was my companion, my strange friend who woke me in the night and again in the morning and who stayed close all day. Colm Toibin
“ I have been acquainted with the smell of death. The sickly, sugary smell that wafted in the wind towards the rooms in this palace. It is easy now for me to feel peaceful and content. Colm Toibin
“ He turned and looked at Henry. Did you always know that you would write all these books? I know the next sentence, Henry said, and often the next story and I take notes for novels. Colm Toibin
“ As they looked at one another, Nora felt Fiona was hostile, and forced herself to remember how upset she must be, and how lonely she might be too. She smiled as she said that they would have to go and… Colm Toibin
“ Andersen was perhaps too young to know how memory and regret can mingle, how much sorrow can be held within, and how nothing seems to have any shape or meaning until it is well past and lost and, even… Colm Toibin
