The Irish are great for their tunes, but all their lovesongs are sad and their warsongs happy.
Colum McCannThe stars looked like nail heads in the sky--pull a few of them out and the darkness would fall.
Colum McCannShe was tired of everyone wanting to go to heaven, nobody wanting to die. The only thing worth grieving over, she said, was that sometimes there was more beauty in this life than the world could bear.
Colum McCannGoodness 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.
Colum McCann