Quote

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

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
Stories
Personal
Part
Becomes
Might
Happened
Matter
Story
Right
Actually
Inevitably
Going
Whether
Irrelevant
Words
Choosing
Experience
Close

More quotes by 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 don't work to any commissions. I do what I want to do.
Roddy Doyle
Image
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
Image
Sometimes adults seem as though they have cut a chord from being a child.
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
When you grow up on an island, what matters is how you stand to the sea.
Roddy Doyle
Image
Schools don't really allow failure and yet it's part of any endeavour, not just writing.
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
The best way to reveal a character is to get them to open their mouths.
Roddy Doyle
Image
She'd tried her hand at most things, but drew the line at honesty.
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
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
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
Image
I see people in terms of dialogue and I believe that people are their talk.
Roddy Doyle
Image
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
Image
The Irish are the niggers of Europe, lads.
Roddy Doyle
Image
Most working days I can be at my desk for nine hours a day.
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
My parents were sixty years married.
Roddy Doyle
Image
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