We have to listen to other people's stories. That's the thing. And that's the only way that we eventually get to know… — Colum McCann Copy Share Image
Even if people laughed at the notion of goodness, if they found it sentimental, or nostalgic, it didn't matter -- it was… — Colum McCann Copy Share Image
She likes the people with the endurance to tolerate the drudge, the ones who know that pain is a requirement, not a… — Colum McCann Copy Share Image
I'm much more interested in allowing a story to happen, and people find whatever meaning is in there. — Colum McCann Copy Share Image
Very seldom in my fiction have I directly used the stories people have told me. I think ripping off people's lives in… — Colum McCann Copy Share Image
Yet she likes complications. She wishes she could turn and say: I like people who unbalance me. — Colum McCann Copy Share Image
People think they know the mystery of living in your skin. They don't. There's no one who knows except the person who… — Colum McCann Copy Share Image
He said to me once that most of the time people use the word love as just another way to show off… — Colum McCann Copy Share Image
A lot of people think that writers are much cleverer than they actually are. No, they're not. But they're emotionally clever, and… — Colum McCann Copy Share Image
I'm not so sure that I can teach people how to, you know, write dialogue or create plot or anything like that.… — Colum McCann Copy Share Image
Some people think love is the end of the road, and if you're lucky enough to find it, you stay there. Other… — Colum McCann Copy Share Image
Goodness was more difficult than evil. Evil men knew that more than good men. That's why they became evil. That's why it… — Colum McCann Copy Share Image
People are good or half good or a quarter good, and it changes all the time- but even on the best day… — Colum McCann Copy Share Image
Give life long enough and it will solve all your problems, including the one of being alive. — Colum McCann Copy Share
“There is something that happens to the mind in moments of terror. Perhaps we figure it's the last we'll ever have and we record… — Colum McCann Copy Share
“The short sharp shock of three thousand mother two hundred mothers. The ones who picked through the supermarket debris for pieces of their dead… — Colum McCann Copy Share
I'm not so sure that I can teach people how to, you know, write dialogue or create plot or anything like that. But if… — Colum McCann Copy Share
“How long ago it was and how strange, but all dead friends come to life again sometimes.” — Colum McCann Copy Share
“She would want, instead, to recall him in the air, between layers of cloud. To give him back that ancient dignity.” — Colum McCann Copy Share
Novels are more difficult simply because they are longer and require more juggling, but short stories are closer to perfection, if you can get… — Colum McCann Copy Share
I think one of the biggest political failures, and the biggest social failures, over the past few years has been the failure of empathy;… — Colum McCann Copy Share
“Bits of it floating in the air, he said. "It's like dust. You walk about and don't see it, don't notice it, but it's… — Colum McCann Copy Share
“He has read whole volumes on the philosophy of nonviolence. How peace had to be understood in all its moral dimensions. The proper coexistence… — Colum McCann Copy Share
“She’s always thought that one of the beauties of New York is that you can be from anywhere and within moments of landing it… — Colum McCann Copy Share
I'm of the opinion that the real is imagined and the imagined is quite real. The real is imagined, in the sense that we… — Colum McCann Copy Share
“She had that emigrant’s sadness—she would never go back to her old country—it was gone in more senses than one—but she was forever gazing… — Colum McCann Copy Share
