Quote

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

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Roddy Doyle
Age: 66
Born: 1958
Born: May 8
Lecturer
Novelist
Playwright
Screenwriter
Writer
Dublin city
Ruaidhrí Ó Dúill
Ruaidhri O Duill
Really
Cases
Happenings
Think
Games
Happening
Thinking
Attention
Although
World
Universe
Anymore
Gaelic
Speak
Played
Admittedly
Didn
Case
Irish
Kids
Outside
Ireland
Wanted
Pay
Center

More quotes by Roddy Doyle

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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
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If you are a writer you're at home, which means you're out of touch. You have to make excuses to get out there and look at how the world is changing.
Roddy Doyle
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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
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I see people in terms of dialogue and I believe that people are their talk.
Roddy Doyle
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My parents were sixty years married.
Roddy Doyle
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The best way to reveal a character is to get them to open their mouths.
Roddy Doyle
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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
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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
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I don't work to any commissions. I do what I want to do.
Roddy Doyle
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Some of the people who look the most normal are probably the maddest people trying to look normal.
Roddy Doyle
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When I was growing up, the exam system didn't allow you to write fiction, so you never did.
Roddy Doyle
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If there is a heaven, Jane Austen is sitting in a small room with Mother Teresa and Princess Diana, listening to Duran Duran, forever. If there's a hell, she's standing.
Roddy Doyle
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I like naming characters.
Roddy Doyle
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Schools don't really allow failure and yet it's part of any endeavour, not just writing.
Roddy Doyle
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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
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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
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The problem with being Irish... is having 'Riverdance' on your back. It's a burden at times.
Roddy Doyle
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You know people are always putting Ulysses in the top 10 books ever written but I doubt that any of those people were really moved by it.
Roddy Doyle
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My novels come from within me they are things I feel I want to do.
Roddy Doyle
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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