Top 45 Quotes & Sayings by Roddy Doyle

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an Irish novelist Roddy Doyle.

Last updated on September 18, 2024.

Roddy Doyle is an Irish novelist, dramatist and screenwriter. He is the author of eleven novels for adults, eight books for children, seven plays and screenplays, and dozens of short stories. Several of his books have been made into films, beginning with The Commitments in 1991. Doyle's work is set primarily in Ireland, especially working-class Dublin, and is notable for its heavy use of dialogue written in slang and Irish English dialect. Doyle was awarded the Booker Prize in 1993 for his novel Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha.

Irish - Novelist | Born: May 8, 1958

Source: Wikipedia

The problem with being Irish... is having 'Riverdance' on your back. It's a burden at times.

Roddy Doyle

Some of the people who look the most normal are probably the maddest people trying to look normal.

Roddy Doyle

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

I like naming characters.

Roddy Doyle

Good ideas are often murdered by better ones.

Roddy Doyle

Ulysses could have done with a good editor. 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

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

I tend to plan as I write. And I want to leave myself open and the character open to keep on going until it seems to be the time to stop.

Roddy Doyle

When I'm writing I just think there's only the page and me and nobody else.

Roddy Doyle

I had to make sure I kept an eye on the real world.

Roddy Doyle

It's a big con job. We have sold the myth of Dublin as a sexy place incredibly well; because it is a dreary little dump most of the time.

Roddy Doyle

It's hard for me to measure them, or to assess my books because I'm so close to them.

Roddy Doyle

When I was growing up, the exam system didn't allow you to write fiction, so you never did.

Roddy Doyle

My novels come from within me; they are things I feel I want to do.

Roddy Doyle

Sometimes adults seem as though they have cut a chord from being a child.

Roddy Doyle

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

When I started writing full time I had not long stopped being a teacher and when at last I had a full day to write, I would put music on and wonder to myself - am I allowed to do this? Then I thought: 'I am control of this and no one is telling me what I can do.'

Roddy Doyle

Most working days I can be at my desk for nine hours a day.

Roddy Doyle

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

Roddy Doyle

My parents were sixty years married.

Roddy Doyle

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

It's great meeting children because you never know what they will say.

Roddy Doyle

I'm going to sound like an old man but at my age, it's lovely doing something that you've never done before.

Roddy Doyle

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

Schools don't really allow failure and yet it's a valid part of any endeavour, not just writing.

Roddy Doyle

I do enjoy Gothic fiction or books about zombies if they are well written and I like vampires.

Roddy Doyle

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

I don't work to any commissions. I do what I want to do.

Roddy Doyle

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

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, 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

I see people in terms of dialogue and I believe that people are their talk.

Roddy Doyle

Do not place a photograph of your favourite author on your desk, especially if the author is one of the famous ones who committed suicide.

Roddy Doyle

The best way to reveal a character is to get them to open their mouths.

Roddy Doyle

It was a sign of growing up, when the dark made no more difference to you than the day.

Roddy Doyle

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

I wasn't even aware of the Year of the Family. I couldn't give a toss. These things - the year of the family, the year of the three-legged dog. I think it's all trash.

Roddy Doyle

The Irish are the niggers of Europe, lads.

Roddy Doyle

To claim that music is more important than oxygen would be trite and sentimental. It would also be true.

Roddy Doyle

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

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

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

She'd tried her hand at most things, but drew the line at honesty.

Roddy Doyle

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

Schools don't really allow failure and yet it's part of any endeavour, not just writing.

Roddy Doyle

Dreaming was only nice while it lasted.

Roddy Doyle