Ciaran Carson Quotes & Sayings

Courage has a brutal core. — Ciaran Carson

I think a writer should always be surprised; and the more I write, the more it seems that the language itself, when explored with humility, is always deeper and more accurate than what the author thought he had in mind. — Ciaran Carson

Where am I coming from? Where am I going? A fusillade of question marks. — Ciaran Carson

There are three points about stories: if told, they like to be heard; if heard, they like to be taken in; and if taken in, they like to be told. — Ciaran Carson

I am reminded, now, of Leonardo's advice to painters: You should fix your eyes, he says, on certain walls stained with damp. You will see in these the likenesses of divine landscapes, adorned with mountains, ruins, rocks, extensive plains; and you will see there battles and strange figures engaged in violent actions. For in such walls the same thing happens as in the sound of church bells, in whose reverberations you may find every word imaginable. — Ciaran Carson

How do you say a thing at all, at the end of the day? How do you say what's in your mind? And as soon as you say what you actually have in mind, it's wrong, isn't it? — Ciaran Carson

There's a whole language out there, and one's role as a writer is to stumble around in it. — Ciaran Carson