“We prefigure our futures by imagining our pasts. To go back and forth....” — Colum McCann Quote

“We prefigure our futures by imagining our pasts. To go back and forth. Across the waters. The past, the present, the elusive future. A nation. Everything constantly shifted by the present. The taut elastic of time.”

“I'm only telling you on the truth," he said. "If you can't stand the truth, don't ask for it.”

“I'm much more interested in allowing a story to happen, and people find whatever meaning is in there.”

“More life on the bottom of the ocean than anywhere else. In the vents. The layers. The currents. Things down there betray all the categories.”

“The best writers attempt to become alternative historians.”

“Increasingly I think of myself as some strange and solitary conductor, introduced to a group of very dynamic musicians who happen to be my characters, and I have no idea how they are going to play together, and I have certainly no idea how I am going to put manners on them.”

“By freeze-framing the image of our lifestyle, by stopping our mental clock at times and letting time flow, 'psychological' time can replace 'chronological' time and our human condition can be called into question. This opens the door to a new challenge and a new future. ( "Svp "Arrêt sur image" )”

“I'm convinced that not all units of time are equal.”

“This was long before the term 'single-parent family' came into use; back then it was a 'broken home'...”

“It's always the miles, not time ...”

“Victory over the infinite space of zero is the birth of space.”

“The only good thing for men therefore is to be diverted from thinking of what they are, either by some occupation which takes their mind off it, or by some novel and agreeable passion which keeps them busy, like gambling, hunting, some absorbing show, in short by what is called diversion.”