Quote

Do be kind to yourself. Fill pages as quickly as possible double space, or write on every second line. Regard every new page as a small triumph. Until you get to page 50. Then calm down, and start worrying about the quality. Do feel anxiety - it's the job.

Roddy Doyle

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Roddy Doyle
Age: 66
Born: 1958
Born: May 8
Lecturer
Novelist
Playwright
Screenwriter
Writer
Dublin city
Ruaidhrí Ó Dúill
Ruaidhri O Duill
Feel
Lines
Quickly
Feels
Small
Anxiety
Writing
Quality
Calm
Every
Possible
Pages
Worrying
Kind
Start
Regard
Double
Space
Line
Triumph
Jobs
Second
Fill
Write
Worry
Page

More quotes by Roddy Doyle

Image
I wouldn't go out of my way to experience the indignity of middle-age just because it might be good meat for a story.
Roddy Doyle
Image
Most working days I can be at my desk for nine hours a day.
Roddy Doyle
Image
When I was growing up, the exam system didn't allow you to write fiction, so you never did.
Roddy Doyle
Image
When I was a kid, if you didn't speak Irish, you really wanted to. And you played Gaelic games and you didn't pay any attention to what was happening in the outside world, because really, the - Ireland was the center of the universe. And I don't think that's the case anymore, although, admittedly, it is the center of the universe.
Roddy Doyle
Image
I write short stories when a little idea occurs to me, that I know isn't a part of a novel that will stand by itself and should be concentrated.
Roddy Doyle
Image
Schools don't really allow failure and yet it's part of any endeavour, not just writing.
Roddy Doyle
Image
When you grow up on an island, what matters is how you stand to the sea.
Roddy Doyle
Image
The problem with being Irish... is having 'Riverdance' on your back. It's a burden at times.
Roddy Doyle
Image
She's a pot-of-tea-before-I-say-boo-to-you woman. There's always a pile of warm teabags in the sink when I come down, like what a horse would leave behind.
Roddy Doyle
Image
The Irish are the niggers of Europe, lads.
Roddy Doyle
Image
I'm not recognised that much. I'm just a bald man in glasses and there's a rash of them in Dublin. It'd be different if I had a mohican.
Roddy Doyle
Image
My parents were sixty years married.
Roddy Doyle
Image
If you're from Dublin, for example, chances are you live with your family, if you're lucky enough to, right up to the mid-20s. And most of the people I know, when they finally sort of set off on their own, they don't stray all that far.
Roddy Doyle
Image
I don't work to any commissions. I do what I want to do.
Roddy Doyle
Image
Some of the people who look the most normal are probably the maddest people trying to look normal.
Roddy Doyle
Image
I've been asked why does Ireland produce so many great musicians, and the answer is it doesn't. When you count the great musicians Ireland has given the world in the last 20 years, you can do it on one hand.
Roddy Doyle
Image
No matter how close to personal experience a story might be, inevitably you are going to get to a part that isn't yours and, actually, whether it happened or not becomes irrelevant. It is all about choosing the right words.
Roddy Doyle
Image
The best way to reveal a character is to get them to open their mouths.
Roddy Doyle
Image
Sometimes adults seem as though they have cut a chord from being a child.
Roddy Doyle
Image
She'd tried her hand at most things, but drew the line at honesty.
Roddy Doyle