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When you grow up on an island, what matters is how you stand to the sea.

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
Grows
Matter
Island
Islands
Matters
Sea
Grow
Stand

More quotes by Roddy Doyle

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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
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I don't work to any commissions. I do what I want to do.
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'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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The Irish are the niggers of Europe, lads.
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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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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The best way to reveal a character is to get them to open their mouths.
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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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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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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She'd tried her hand at most things, but drew the line at honesty.
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
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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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Schools don't really allow failure and yet it's part of any endeavour, not just writing.
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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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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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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My parents were sixty years married.
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