327 Quotes by Colum McCann

People think they know the mystery of living in your skin. They don’t. There’s no one who knows except the person who carts it around her own self.

A bi gezunt, his mother would have said. She was always one for the ancient phrase. You have your health, what more do you want? –.

Their perfect English accents. As if serving all their vowels on a fine set of tongs.

In 1974, Mahmoud Darwish wrote Yasser Arafat’s speech to the General Assembly of the United Nations: Today I have come bearing an olive branch in one hand and a freedom fighter’s gun in the other. Do not let the olive branch fall from my hand.

In the summer quiet. Just be. Joshua liked the Beatles, used to listen to them in his room, you could hear the noise even through the big headphones he loved. Let it be. Silly song, really. You let it be, it returns. There’s the truth. You let it be, it drags you to the ground. You let it be, it crawls up your walls.

Pain’s nothing. Pain’s what you give, not what you get.

The thing about the Occupation is that it never let you decide. It took away your ability for choice. Banish it and choice would appear.

It struck me that distant cities are designed precisely so you can know where you came from. We bring home with us when we leave. Sometimes it becomes more acute for the fact of having left.

I suppose I’ve always known that it’s hard to be just one person. the key is in the door and it can always be opened.