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I was brought up in a house where there was a great deal of silence.

— Colm Tóibín

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Silence

More quotes by Colm Tóibín

If a storyteller came up to me, I'd run away.

Ending a novel is almost like putting a child to sleep – it can't be done abruptly.

I have a rule that I don't drink in New York because I don't want to wake up with a hangover and not be able to work.

I wanted to be a poet as a child and I have a wall in my study dedicated to poetry books, all in alphabetical order, that reminds me daily of my failure.

I was the worst barman who ever lived. My pints of Guinness were unholy.

All Colm Tóibín quotes →

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To sin by silence, when we should protest,
Makes cowards out of men.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox New Thought Pastels (1913)

Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving us wordy evidence of the fact.

George Eliot

There are times when good words are to be left unsaid out of esteem for silence.

Benedict of Nursia

I think television has betrayed the meaning of democratic speech, adding visual chaos to the confusion of voices. What role does silence have in all this noise?

Federico Fellini I'm a Born Liar (2003)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Colm Tóibín (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.