Why Colm Tóibín believes a writer must be in pain to create great work

Art · Published 30 September 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Colm Tóibín, the acclaimed Irish novelist and critic, views writing as a physical struggle that requires discomfort. From his early days in Enniscorthy to his current role at Columbia University, Tóibín has built a career exploring silence, exile, and identity, often drawing from his own life and deep literary influences.

Born in 1955 in County Wexford, Ireland, Colm Tóibín grew up in a home marked by silence and personal tragedy. His father, a schoolteacher, died when Tóibín was twelve, and his own childhood was punctuated by a three-month separation from his mother during his father's illness. This period, he believes, triggered a lifelong stammer that left him unable to speak his own name. These early experiences of loss and emotional restraint became central themes in his work, which often examines the intersection of Irish society, family dynamics, and the complexities of identity.

Tóibín’s literary process is as deliberate as his themes. He famously avoids comfort, suggesting that a writer should be physically hunched and in pain while working to pull ideas from within. He writes his first drafts on the right-hand side of the page, reserving the left for later revisions. His career spans novels like The Master and Brooklyn, as well as extensive non-fiction and poetry. He is known for his fictionalized portraits of literary figures like Henry James and Thomas Mann, and he has served as a professor at institutions including the University of Manchester and Columbia University.

Beyond his writing, Tóibín is a vocal advocate for artistic freedom. In 2017, he famously challenged the Irish Arts Council’s attempt to regulate artists, comparing their demand for constant 'productive practice' to Soviet-era policies. He pointed to the careers of W. B. Yeats, James Joyce, and John McGahern to argue that creativity cannot be measured by continuous output. Having survived a severe battle with cancer in 2019, Tóibín remains a prolific voice in contemporary literature, continuing to explore the 'glamorous, smart and shaped' prose he first admired as a teenager reading Hemingway on a beach in County Waterford.

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