KeenBrain
KeenBrain
KeenBrain

Colum Mccann Quotes


Share this page on

Quotes by Colum Mccann

Showing 11-20 of 25 Quotes by Colum Mccann

In a certain way, novelists become unacknowledged historians, because we talk about small, tiny, little anonymous moments that won't necessarily make it into the history books.

~Colum Mccann

Topics: About Anonymous Because Become Books Certain Certain Way Historians History History Books Little Make Moments Necessarily Novelists Small Talk Tiny Way

Keywords: None


Suggest an Edit


Cite the source


Save to Favorites


Collect


I think we need stories, and we need to tell the stories over and over and over not only to remind us, but to be able to have that clarity of experience that changes us, so that we know who we are now because of who we have been at some other time.

~Colum Mccann

Topics: Able Because Been Changes Clarity Experience Know Need Now Only Other Over Remind Some Stories Tell Think Time Us Who I Think

Keywords: None


Suggest an Edit


Cite the source


Save to Favorites


Collect


I think literature can make familiar the unfamiliar, and the unfamiliar is very much about the dispossessed, and so the value of literature seems to me to go into the stories that not everybody wants to tell.

~Colum Mccann

Topics: About Everybody Familiar Go Literature Make Me Much Seems Stories Tell Think Unfamiliar Value Very Wants I Think

Keywords: None


Suggest an Edit


Cite the source


Save to Favorites


Collect


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.

~Colum Mccann

Topics: Come Emotional He Job Look Make Moment Now Only Sense Some Sort Where Writer Years

Keywords: None


Suggest an Edit


Cite the source


Save to Favorites


Collect


Very seldom in my fiction have I directly used the stories people have told me. I think ripping off people's lives in fiction is dangerous. It also lacks imagination.

~Colum Mccann

Topics: Also Dangerous Directly Fiction Imagination Lacks Lives Me Off People Ripping Seldom Stories Think Used Very I Think

Keywords: None


Suggest an Edit


Cite the source


Save to Favorites


Collect


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.

~Colum Mccann

Topics: Absolutely Available Believe Embrace Entirely Hope Me Need Part Really Say Sentimental Silly Us Wants Would

Keywords: None


Suggest an Edit


Cite the source


Save to Favorites


Collect


I mean, every novel's a historical novel anyway. But calling something a historical novel seems to put mittens on it, right? It puts manners on it. And you don't want your novels to be mannered.

~Colum Mccann

Topics: Anyway Calling Every Historical Manners Mean Novel Novels Put Puts Right Seems Something Want You Your

Keywords: None


Suggest an Edit


Cite the source


Save to Favorites


Collect


I don't believe a poet has a better hold on truth or morality than a fiction writer has. And I don't think a fiction writer has anything over a journalist. It's all about the good word, properly inserted.

~Colum Mccann

Topics: About Anything Believe Better Fiction Fiction Writer Good Hold Journalist Morality Over Poet Properly Than Think Truth Word Writer

Keywords: None


Suggest an Edit


Cite the source


Save to Favorites


Collect


I don't really know what an adverb is. A dangling participle? That sounds really rude. I don't know what character is, really. Plot seems vaguely juvenile to me. It's all about language, it's all about how you apply it to the page.

~Colum Mccann

Topics: About Apply Character How Juvenile Know Language Me Page Plot Really Rude Seems Sounds Vaguely You

Keywords: None


Suggest an Edit


Cite the source


Save to Favorites


Collect


When I come home, I say I'm coming home to Dublin. When I'm in Dublin, I say I'm going home to New York. I'm sort of a man of two countries.

~Colum Mccann

Topics: Come Coming Coming Home Countries Dublin Going Going Home Home Man New New York Say Sort Two York

Keywords: None


Suggest an Edit


Cite the source


Save to Favorites


Collect


Biography

Nationality: Irish

Type: Writer

Born: February 28th, 1965

Links

Find Colum Mccann on Amazon

Related Authors

Dale Carnegie
Anne Frank
Napoleon Hill
Elbert Hubbard
Niccolo Machiavelli
Ayn Rand
Dr. Seuss
Voltaire

Popular Authors

Woody Allen William Blake Dwight D. Eisenhower Ernest Hemingway Jimi Hendrix Billie Jean King Eartha Kitt Taylor Swift

Change your beliefs...change your life.

Get a related quote or insight every day.

(it's 100% free)

Follow Us On

Today's Birthdays

1890 - H. P. Lovecraft

1601 - Pierre De Fermat

1833 - Benjamin Harrison

1881 - Edgar Guest

1886 - Paul Tillich

1892 - George Aiken

1901 - Salvatore Quasimodo

1907 - Shirley Booth

1908 - Al Lopez

1917 - Terry Sanford

Birthdays on August 20th
All Birthdays

Popular Topics

Alone Anger Attitude Christmas Environmental Music Parenting Women