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Where happiness was not a possibility, the illusion of it was always more important.

Colum McCann

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Colum McCann
Age: 59
Born: 1965
Born: February 28
Academic
Journalist
Novelist
Screenwriter
Writer
Dublin city
Always
Illusion
Possibility
Happiness
Important

More quotes by Colum McCann

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I know already that I will return to this day whenever I want to. I can bid it alive. Preserve it. There is a still point where the present, the now, winds around itself, and nothing is tangled. The river is not where it begins or ends, but right in the middle point, anchored by what has happened and what is to arrive.
Colum McCann
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Memory has a heavy backspin, yet it’s still impossible to land exactly where we took off.
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She takes another long haul, lets the smoke settle in her lungs-- she has heard somewhere that cigarettes are good for grief. One long drag and you forget how to cry. The body too busy dealing with the poison.
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I have the most charmed, most - I feel entirely blessed and lucky that I have the life that I have.
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If they ask you to stand still, you should dance.
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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 ourselves.
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They told me Corrigan smashed all the bones in his chest when he hit the steering wheel. I thought, Well at least in heaven his Spanish chick'll be able to reach in and grab his heart.
Colum McCann
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The repeated lies become history, but they don't necessarily become the truth.
Colum McCann
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That's what sons do: write to their mothers about recall, tell themselves about the past until they come to realize that they are the past.
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Téa Obreht is the most thrilling literary discovery in years
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I write articles, and I do profiles of members of organizations and associations.
Colum McCann
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It was a silence that heard itself, awful and beautiful.
Colum McCann
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Cynicism is easy. An optimist is a braver cynic.
Colum McCann
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I think the Northern Ireland accent is one of the most beautiful in the world.
Colum McCann
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Literature can remind us that not all life is already written down: there are still so many stories to be told.
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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
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It had never occurred to me before but everything in New York is built upon another thing, nothing is entirely by itself, each thing as strange as the last, and connected.
Colum McCann
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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
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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
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I sit there thinking about how much courage it takes to live an ordinary life.
Colum McCann