Colum McCann
Colum McCann
Colum McCannis an Irish writer of literary fiction. He was born in Dublin, Ireland and now lives in New York. He is a Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing in the Master of Fine Arts program at Hunter College, New York with fellow novelists Peter Carey and Tea Obreht, and has visited many universities and colleges all over the world...
NationalityIrish
ProfessionWriter
Date of Birth28 February 1965
CountryIreland
whatever-you-say
Whatever you say, say nothing.
thinking ordinary ordinary-life
I sit there thinking about how much courage it takes to live an ordinary life.
years discovery thrilling
Téa Obreht is the most thrilling literary discovery in years
said ifs asks
I'm only telling you on the truth," he said. "If you can't stand the truth, don't ask for it.
silly believe needs
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.
memories hearing firsts
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.
men looks want
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.
steps ordinary moments
How inevitable it is; we step into an ordinary moment and never come out again.
pain forever tea
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.
life people wish
Yet she likes complications. She wishes she could turn and say: I like people who unbalance me.
war hate simple
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.
lying
The repeated lies become history, but they don't necessarily become the truth.
There are no days more full than those we go back to.
body fiction alive
Part of the beauty of fiction is that we come alive in a body that we don't own.