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
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
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
He didn't like it all that much when he first came - all the rubbish and the rush - but it was… — Colum McCann Copy Share Image
The war was about vanity, he said. It was about old men who couldn't look in the mirror anymore and so they… — Colum McCann Copy Share Image
He might have been naive, but he didn't care; he said he's rather die with his heart on his sleeve than end… — Colum McCann Copy Share Image
She was tired of everyone wanting to go to heaven, nobody wanting to die. The only thing worth grieving over, she said,… — Colum McCann Copy Share Image
I'm only telling you on the truth," he said. "If you can't stand the truth, don't ask for it. — Colum McCann Copy Share Image
Let this be a lesson to us all, said the preacher. You will be walking someday in the dark and the truth… — 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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
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 Image
“How long ago it was and how strange, but all dead friends come to life again sometimes.” — Colum McCann Copy Share Image
“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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
