Colum McCann Quotes

Forgiveness isn’t my best thing. Easier staying pissed. But I’m tired of being pissed all the time. Tired of feeling hurt by stuff that can never be fixed because it is an indelible part of the past.

Anger is easier than forgiveness.

The best way is not to fight it, just go. Don't be trying all the time to fix things. What you run from only stays with you longer. When you fight something, you only make it stronger.

Over the past week, I’ve accepted that I will never love Julian as much as I loved Alex. But now that idea is overwhelming, like a wall between us. I will never love Julian like I love Alex.

It is hard to forgive, and to look at those eyes, and feel those wasted hands,' he answered. 'Kiss me again; and don’t let me see your eyes! I forgive what you have done to me. I love my murderer—but yours! How can I?

Sometimes things work out on the golf course and sometimes they don't. Life will go on. You try to understand what happens, but maybe today I don't want to know. I just screwed up so maybe I should just put it behind me.

What we don't recognize is that holding onto resentment is like holding onto your breath. You'll soon start to suffocate.

Shouldn't letting go be painless if you've never learned how to hold on?

You don't dwell on what you've lost, you just move on.

so it's always a process of letting go, one way or another

I love you more than songs can say, but I can't keep running after yesterday.

Though I can't change what happened, I can choose how to react. And I don't want to spend the rest of my life being bitter and locked up.

I knew it in my bones. That this time was it. I had finally made my choice, and so had he. He let me go. I was relieved, which I expected. What I didn't expect was to feel so much grief.

For a short time, I hated them. But when you think about it, what good does that do?It takes so much to hold on to hate—you lose your grip on what's important, you know?

Inside your own self pity there you swim, in sinking down to drown her voice still haunts you, and only with your laughter can you win.

She let him go once. Every day demands that she release him over and over again.

To mourn a mischief that is past and gone Is the next way to draw new mischief on.

It took me as long as I had known him to get rid of all of his words. Like turning an hourglass over.

You've got to know when to let a woman go if you want to keep her,and if you don't want to keep her you let her go anyhow so it's always a process of letting go, one way or the other.

It's okay if you want to go. Everyone wants you to stay. I want you to stay more than I've ever wanted anything in my life. But that's what I want and I could see why it might not be what you want. So I just wanted to tell you that I understand if you go. It's okay if you have to leave us. It's okay if you want to stop fighting.

You can't keep blaming yourself. Just blame yourself once, and move on." Homer Simpson

I suppose in the end, the whole of life becomes an act of letting go, but what always hurts the most is not taking a moment to say goodbye.

Forgive everybody for everything. Just forgive and start - most of us can't start with ourselves. We have to forgive the people we think did things to us. So that's fine. Start there - wherever. Start with the dog who peed on the rug. I don't care where you start, just do it.