...and it strikes her, as she walks, that borders, like hatred, are exaggerated precisely because otherwise they would cease to exist altogether. Colum McCann More Quotes by Colum McCann More Quotes From Colum McCann The contemporary American novelist benefits in a way from being ignored. It makes you angrier and makes you want to go into all of those places where you shouldnt. Colum McCann being-ignored benefits novelists Increasingly I think of myself as some strange and solitary conductor, introduced to a group of very dynamic musicians who happen to be my characters, and I have no idea how they are going to play together, and I have certainly no idea how I am going to put manners on them. Colum McCann character ideas thinking Cynicism is easy. An optimist is a braver cynic. Colum McCann optimist cynicism easy There is always room for at least two truths. Colum McCann two rooms The point of flight. To get rid of oneself. That was reason enough to fly. Colum McCann flight enough reason Whatever you say, say nothing. Colum McCann whatever-you-say Téa Obreht is the most thrilling literary discovery in years Colum McCann thrilling discovery years Part of me really wants to believe that hope is entirely available to all of us. We don't have to embrace it. It would be sentimental and silly to say that we all need it, but it is absolutely available to all of us. Colum McCann silly believe needs I think one of the biggest political failures, and the biggest social failures, over the past few years has been the failure of empathy; not being able to look at the other person down the street. Colum McCann past years thinking One small cloud, cast out by the herd, limps away to the west. Colum McCann herds west clouds Stories are there to be told, and each story changes with the telling. Time changes them. Logic changes them. Grammar changes them. History changes them. Each story is shifted side-ways by each day that unfolds. Nothing ends. The only thing that matters, as Faulkner once put it, is the human heart in conflict with itself. At the heart of all this is the possibility, or desire, to create a piece of art that talks to the human instinct for recovery and joy. Colum McCann recovery joy art Where happiness was not a possibility, the illusion of it was always more important. Colum McCann illusion possibility important Pain is not wat you get, it is wat you give. Colum McCann pain giving The war was about vanity, he said. It was about old men who couldn't look in the mirror anymore and so they sent the young out to die. Was was a get-together of the vain. They wanted it simple--hate your enemy, know nothing of him. Colum McCann hate simple war We seldom know what we're hearing when we hear something for the first time, but one thing is certain: we hear it as we will never hear it again. We return to the moment to experience it, I suppose, but we can never really find it, only its memory, the faintest imprint of what really was, what it meant. Colum McCann hearing memories firsts He looks like the sort of man who can't afford to leave, and doesn't want to stay, and so he is doing both at once. Colum McCann want men looks How inevitable it is; we step into an ordinary moment and never come out again. Colum McCann moments steps ordinary ...it was necessary to love silence, but before you could love silence you had to have noise. Colum McCann silence-love silence noise He realized that he had thought only about the first step, never imagined the last. Colum McCann lasts steps firsts Even if you're going to die, you might as well die pretty. Colum McCann wells dies might
