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A lot of people think that writers are much cleverer than they actually are. No, they're not. But they're emotionally clever, and they go into a character, and they feel something that they weren't entirely aware of beforehand.

Colum McCann

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Colum McCann
Age: 59
Born: 1965
Born: February 28
Academic
Journalist
Novelist
Screenwriter
Writer
Dublin city
Think
Aware
Thinking
Writers
People
Actually
Cleverer
Character
Beforehand
Feel
Emotionally
Feels
Weren
Much
Entirely
Something
Clever

More quotes by 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.
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If they ask you to stand still, you should dance.
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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.
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I don't know of a greater privilege than being allowed to tell a story, or to listen to a story. They're the only thing we have that can trump life itself.
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She was forever tilted sideways by the notion that pain was inevitable, chance was cruel, and all human ingenuity should go towards the making of a good cup of tea.
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The job of the writer is to look at where he is now and make some sort of emotional sense of it, not only for that moment but for years to come.
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I think the Northern Ireland accent is one of the most beautiful in the world.
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The real beauty in life is that beauty can sometimes occur.
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It was a silence that heard itself, awful and beautiful.
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I'm only telling you on the truth, he said. If you can't stand the truth, don't ask for it.
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Words are good for saying what things are, but sometimes they don't function for what things aren't.
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I grew up sort of middle class, safe and suburban.
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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.
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There are no days more full than those we go back to.
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He said to me once that most of the time people use the word love as just another way to show off they're hungry. The way he said it went something like: Glorify their appetites.
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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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About 25 years ago, I took a bicycle across the United States. I soon found out that the greatest item of clothing was the trusty bandanna. There were dozens of uses for a bandanna - as a pot holder, a chain cleaner, a sun shield, a headband, a snot rag, a declaration of Kerouacian intent.
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The world does not turn without moments of grace. Who cares how small.
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Memory has a heavy backspin, yet it’s still impossible to land exactly where we took off.
Colum McCann
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The repeated lies become history, but they don't necessarily become the truth.
Colum McCann