Colum McCann Men Quotations

He felt for a moment uncreated. Another kind of awake.

She wanted to tell him so mach, on the tarmac, the day he left. The world is run by brutal men and the surest proof is their armies. If they ask you to stand still, you should dance. If they ask you to burn the flag, wave it. If they ask you to murder, re-create.

Every man with his own peculiar vice. His will hardly rock heaven or hell.

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.

How inevitable it is; we step into an ordinary moment and never come out again.

Even if people laughed at the notion of goodness, if they found it sentimental, or nostalgic, it didn't matter -- it was none of those things, he said, and it had to be fought for.

Goodness was more difficult than evil. Evil men knew that more than good men. That's why they became evil. That's why it stuck with them. Evil was for those who could never reach the truth. It was a mask for stupidity and lack of love. Even if people laughed at the notion of goodness, if they found it sentimental, or nostalgic, it didn't matter -- it was none of those things, he said, and it had to be fought for.

Women get the short shrift in history. It's been largely written and dictated by men, or at least men believe that we own it, and women have really been in those quieter moments at the edge of history. But, really, they're the ones who are turning the cogs and the wheels and allowing things like the peace process to happen.

I think we're moving toward moments of grace and understanding. And I think these things take time.

She's always thought that one of the beauties of New York is that you can be from anywhere and within moments of landing its yours.