The Shortest Day Quotes

“It revealed an imagination that was both simple and sophisticated, that dealt in ambiguity and suggestion as well as clarity and directness.”
― Colm Tóibín, The Shortest Day

“It was not what they did in war that made them proud of their past, they said. It was what they had done in peace. It was the art they made, the homage they paid to mystery and beauty.”
― Colm Tóibín, The Shortest Day

“We do not connect with mortals, in the same way eternity does not connect with time.
—The Longest Day”
― Colm Tóibín, The Shortest Day

“Because we must all know our place in the great scheme of things. We respect mystery and silence and spirit.”
― Colm Tóibín, The Shortest Day

“But did they have gods? Or believe in an afterlife?” one writer had insisted. “It is my job to sift the evidence,” the professor replied. “There is no evidence that would allow me to answer that question.”
― Colm Tóibín, The Shortest Day