Ciaran Carson > Quotes

“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

“Courage has a brutal core.”
― Ciarán Carson, The Táin: From the Irish Epic Táin Bó Cúailnge

“I am alone against hordes
I cannot stop nor let go
I stand here in the long cold hours
alone against every foe.”
― Ciaran Carson, The Táin: From the Irish Epic Táin Bó Cúailnge

“[Cu Chulainn will] spill the blood of everybody in the fort unless you act quickly and send the naked women out to meet him."
... "Bring on the naked women!" said Conchobar.”
― Ciaran Carson, The Táin: From the Irish Epic Táin Bó Cúailnge

“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.”
― Ciarán Carson, Fishing for Amber: A Long Story

“I fear the vast dimensions of eternity.
I fear the gap between the platform and the train.
I fear the onset of a murderous campaign.
I fear the palpitations caused by too much tea.

I fear the drawn pistol of a rapparee.
I fear the books will not survive the acid rain.
I fear the ruler and the blackboard and the cane.
I fear the Jabberwock, whatever it might be.

I fear the bad decisions of a referee.
I fear the only recourse is to plead insane.
I fear the implications of a lawyer’s fee.

I fear the gremlins that have colonized my brain.
I fear to read the small print of the guarantee.
And what else do I fear? Let me begin again.”
― Ciaran Carson, Selected Poems | Ciaran Carson

“The hero's light sprang from his forehead, long and thick as a warrior's whetstone, long as a prow, and he clattered with rage as he wielded the shields, urging his charioteer on and raining stones on the massed army. Then thick, steady, strong, high as the mast of a tall ship was the straight spout of dark blood that rose up from the fount of his skull to dissolve in an otherworldly mist like the smoke that hangs above a royal hunting-lodge when a king comes to be looked after at the close of a winter's day.”
― Ciarán Carson, The Táin: From the Irish Epic Táin Bó Cúailnge

“Almost dead yesterday, maybe dead tomorrow, but alive, gloriously alive, today.”
― 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