# Quote — Ian McDonald, Desolation Road

> These songs were the true names of things, spoken by the soul, so easily buried under the little busynesses of everyman everyday.

- Author: [Ian McDonald](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ian-mcdonald.md)
- Book: [Desolation Road](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ian-mcdonald/desolation-road.md)
- Page: 111
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ian_McDonald#Desolation_Road_(1988)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/ian-mcdonald/desolation-road/these-songs-were

## More from this book

> The five minutes ticked away on Limaal Mandella’s fob watch and the tension wound tight around Corporation Plaza. Rael Mandella Jr., sweating in his father’s best championship suit, was horrified to realize how few of such brief five-minute periods went to make up a lifetime.

p. 238 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ian-mcdonald/desolation-road/the-five-minutes.md)

> She had not won a clean victory. Tinkering with time and history offended her political sensibilities. History was written in the stones. It was not a numinous thing to be tossed sparkling in the air to lie where it fell. She did not like to think of her life and world as a mere mutability of potentials.

p. 327 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ian-mcdonald/desolation-road/she-had-not.md)

> A chilly piety leaked into the air.

p. 248 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ian-mcdonald/desolation-road/a-chilly-piety.md)