Colum McCann Quotes

I've seen enough things to know that if you just keep on going, if you turn the corner, the sun will be shining.

I'm a serious optimist. I come from a country where you have little to be hopeful for, and so you have to always be an optimist.

Any system which says, This is a rotten world, wait for the next, give up, do nothing, succumb--that may be the basic Lie and if we participate in believing it and acting (or rather not acting) on it we involve ourselves in the Lie and suffer dreadfully... which only reinforces that particular Lie.

I have this thing I say to myself that 'tomorrow can be better.' And I remember that period in my life where I never felt like tomorrow could be better. It was always dread for the next day.

The road to recovery will not always be easy, but I will take it one day at a time, focusing on the moments I've dreamed about for so long.

I don't think everything is going to get peachy ever. But I think we have to fight for what we believe in.

If children have the ability to ignore all odds and percentages, then maybe we can all learn from them. When you think about it, what other choice is there but to hope? We have two options, medically and emotionally: give up, or Fight Like Hell.

How do you nurture a positive attitude when all the statistics say you're a dead man? You go to work.

Pessimism of the spirit; optimism of the will.

If you love your life, you have to fight. If you believe in life and progress and possibilities, you have no choice.

People say I'm such a pessimist, but I always was. It never stopped me from doing what I had to do. I would say I'm a realist.

Pessimism never won any battle.

All right, every day ain't going to be the best day of your life, don't worry about that. If you stick to it you hold the possibility open that you will have better days.

I am an optimist, unrepentant and militant. After all, in order not to be a fool an optimist must know how sad a place the world can be. It is only the pessimist who finds this out anew every day.

What's the point of being negative or fearful? We can't control it.

Everything will probably never be OK. But we have to try for it.

I think in defeat you grope for things that are happy, and it's hard.

You have to be an optimist, right? You have to be critical, then you have to be an optimist. Or else you're really stupid.

Never let your head hang down. Never give up and sit down and grieve. Find another way. And don't pray when it rains if you don't pray when the sun shines.

All I can do is to try and make the future better.

I always tell people, 'It'll get greater later' meaning that sometimes we have to pass through whatever it is. We know that we can get through it because others have.

You have to be optimistic in order to continue to move forward.

As cheesy and cornball as it sounds, life does get better - if you want it to.

There's so much life to live, and if you just keep on breathing and keep on walking, you will get through everything.

I'm an optimistic realist. I kind of expect the worst but prepare for the best.