1
We seldom know what echo our actions will find, but our stories will most certainly outlast us.Colum McCann
2
It was as if they wanted to take their older bodies and put their younger hearts inside.Colum McCann
3
The world does not turn without moments of grace. Who cares how small.Colum McCann
4
An optimist is a braver cynic.Colum McCann
5
The true nature of a democracy is its ability to say yes when even the powerful say noColum McCann
6
His body, his mind, his soul, had, for years, served only for the profit of others. He had his own people to whom he was pledged. Three million. They were the currency of his freedom.Colum McCann
7
The Irish were poor, but not enslaved. He had come here to hack away at the ropes that held American slavery in place. Sometimes it withered him just to keep his mind steady. He was aware that the essence of proper intelligence was the embrace of contradiction. And the recognition of complexity was to be balanced against the need for simplicity. He was still a slave. Fugitive. If he returned to Boston he could be kidnapped at any time, taken south, strapped to a tree, whipped. His owners. They would make a spectacle of his fame. They had tried to silence him for many years already. No longer. He had been given a chance to speak out against what had held him in chains. And he would continue to do so until the links lay in pieces at his feet.Colum McCann
8
She expected no judgement and wanted no pity.Colum McCann
9
And there are moments that I would like to know what might have happened if it hadn't happened, and why it happened the way it did, and what it might have taken to prevent it from happening.Colum McCann
10
The luxury of age was the giving up of vanity.Colum McCann