Colum McCann Quotes

Quotes about:

• The world spins. We stumble on. It is enough.

  Colum McCann

  Inspirational, World, Chaos

  Colum McCann (2009). “Let the Great World Spin: A Novel”, p.349, Random House

  45 Copy quote

• I’m not interested in blind optimism, but I’m very interested in optimism that is hard-won, that takes on darkness and then says, ‘This is not enough.’ But it takes time, more time than we can sometimes imagine, to get there. And sometimes we don’t.

  Colum McCann

  Optimism, Darkness, Sometimes

  35 Copy quote

• The thing about love is that we come alive in bodies not our own.

  Colum McCann

  Beautiful, Love Is, Alive

  Colum McCann (2009). “Let The Great World Spin”, p.237, Bloomsbury Publishing

  26 Copy quote

• I write about what I know; and I write about things that are new to me, and that I didn't know before.

  Colum McCann

  Writing, Knows

  "Colum McCann Links Communities With Storytelling". "Talk of the Nation" with Neal Conan, www.npr.org. June 26, 2012.

  28 Copy quote

• People are good or half good or a quarter good, and it changes all the time- but even on the best day nobody's perfect.

  Colum McCann

  People, Perfect, Half

  Colum McCann (2009). “Let The Great World Spin”, p.260, Bloomsbury Publishing

  8 Copy quote

• I'm a complete and utter fiction. Then again, we all are.

  Colum McCann

  Fiction

  Source: www.omnivoracious.com

  4 Copy quote

• I think a good novel can be a doorstop to despair. I also think the real bravery comes with those who prepared to go through that door and look at the world in all its grime and torment, and still find something of value, no matter how small.

  Colum McCann

  Real, Thinking, Doors

  15 Copy quote

• There's a part of me that thinks perhaps we go on existing in a place even after we've left it.

  Colum McCann

  Thinking, Goes On, Left

  Colum McCann (2009). “Let The Great World Spin”, p.263, Bloomsbury Publishing

  14 Copy quote

• There are moments we return to, now and always. Family is like water - it has a memory of what it once filled, always trying to get back to the original stream.

  Colum McCann

  Memories, Always Trying, Water

  Colum McCann (2009). “Let The Great World Spin”, p.50, Bloomsbury Publishing

  15 Copy quote

• The tunnels of our lives connect, coming to daylight at the oddest moments, and then plunge us into the dark again. We return to the lives of those who have gone before us, a perplexing möbius strip until we come home, eventually, to ourselves.

  Colum McCann

  Home, Dark, Tunnels

  Colum McCann (2013). “TransAtlantic: A Novel”, p.227, Random House

  13 Copy quote

• I sit there thinking about how much courage it takes to live an ordinary life.

  Colum McCann

  Thinking, Ordinary, Ordinary Life

  Colum McCann (2009). “Let The Great World Spin”, p.49, Bloomsbury Publishing

  8 Copy quote

• Long ago, long ago. The simple things come back to us. They rest for a moment by our ribcages then suddenly reach in and twist our hearts a notch backward.

  Colum McCann

  Heart, Simple, Long Ago

  Colum McCann (2009). “Let The Great World Spin”, p.72, Bloomsbury Publishing

  16 Copy quote

• The luxury of age was the giving up of vanity.

  Colum McCann

  Giving Up, Vanity, Luxury

  Colum McCann (2013). “TransAtlantic”, p.119, A&C Black

  4 Copy quote

• Good days, they come around the oddest corners.

  Colum McCann

  Good Day, Corners

  Colum McCann (2009). “Let The Great World Spin”, p.71, Bloomsbury Publishing

  4 Copy quote

• The world does not turn without moments of grace. Who cares how small.

  Colum McCann

  Grace, Who Cares, Doe

  Colum McCann (2013). “TransAtlantic”, p.205, Bloomsbury Publishing

  6 Copy quote

• Stories are the best democracy we have. We are allowed to become the other we never dreamed we could be.

  Colum McCann

  Democracy, Stories

  8 Copy quote

• The real beauty in life is that beauty can sometimes occur.

  Colum McCann

  Real, Ballet, Sometimes

  4 Copy quote

• We have to admire the world for not ending on us.

  Colum McCann

  World, Admire

  Colum McCann (2013). “TransAtlantic: A Novel”, p.281, Random House

  13 Copy quote

• It was a silence that heard itself, awful and beautiful.

  Colum McCann

  Beautiful, Silence, Awful

  Colum McCann (2009). “Let The Great World Spin”, p.5, Bloomsbury Publishing

  13 Copy quote

• Life must pass through difficulty in order to achieve any modicum of beauty.

  Colum McCann

  Order, Achieve, Difficulty

  Colum McCann (2009). “Let The Great World Spin”, p.128, Bloomsbury Publishing

  4 Copy quote

• Give life long enough and it will solve all your problems, including the one of being alive.

  Colum McCann

  Long, Giving, Alive

  11 Copy quote

• Goodness was more difficult than evil. Evil men knew that more than good men. That's why they became evil. That's why it stuck with them. Evil was for those who could never reach the truth. It was a mask for stupidity and lack of love. Even if people laughed at the notion of goodness, if they found it sentimental, or nostalgic, it didn't matter -- it was none of those things, he said, and it had to be fought for.

  Colum McCann

  Men, People, Evil

  Colum McCann (2009). “Let The Great World Spin”, p.128, Bloomsbury Publishing

  11 Copy quote

• I was fascinated by the lack of a word for a parent who has lost a child. We have no word in English. I thought for sure there'd be a word in Irish but there is none. And then I looked in several other languages and could not find one, until I found the word Sh'khol in Hebrew. I'm still not sure why so many languages don't have a word for this sort of bereavement, this shadowing.

  Colum McCann

  Children, Parent, Bereavement

  Source: www.omnivoracious.com

  4 Copy quote

• She was tired of everyone wanting to go to heaven, nobody wanting to die. The only thing worth grieving over, she said, was that sometimes there was more beauty in this life than the world could bear.

  Colum McCann

  Tired, Grieving, Heaven

  Colum McCann (2009). “Let The Great World Spin”, p.292, Bloomsbury Publishing

  8 Copy quote

• The point of flight. To get rid of oneself. That was reason enough to fly.

  Colum McCann

  Flight, Reason, Enough

  Colum McCann (2013). “TransAtlantic: A Novel”, p.31, Random House

  4 Copy quote

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