I've never been very attached to genre labels and never set out intentionally to write historic fiction. Besides, what you consider historic depends on how far back your memory extends. Charles Frazier More Quotes by Charles Frazier More Quotes From Charles Frazier Or maybe it is only that we are so habitually inattentive that when some rare but simple geometry grabs us by the shoulders and shakes us into consciousness, we call our response sacred. Charles Frazier sacred consciousness simple All I can say is that we are mistaken to gouge such a deep rift in history that the things old men and old women know have become so useless as to be not worth passing on to grandchildren. Charles Frazier grandchildren passing-on men When all else is lost and gone forever, there is yearning. Only desire trumps time. Charles Frazier gone desire forever It's a good thing war is so terrible or else we'd get to liking it too much. Charles Frazier too-much good-things war Thinking: this journey will be the axle of my life. Charles Frazier cold-mountain journey thinking While writing Cold Mountain, I held maps of two geographies, two worlds, in my mind as I wrote. One was an early map of North Carolina. Overlaying it, though, was an imagined map of the landscape Jack travels in the southern Appalachian folktales. He's much the same Jack who climbs the beanstalk, vulnerable and clever and opportunistic. Charles Frazier clever writing two Contentment is mostly a matter of talking yourself into believing that God will not strike you too hard for leaning in the direction of your hungers. Charles Frazier contentment talking believe I met people when we lived down in Raleigh who'd ask where I grew up, and I'd say about two hours west of Asheville, and they'd say they didn't know there was any North Carolina two hours west of Asheville. It was in many ways an isolated place. Charles Frazier north-carolina two people One thing he discovered with a great deal of astonishment was that music held for him more then just pleasure. There was meat to it. The grouping of sounds, their forms in the air as they rang out and faded, said something comforting to him about the rule of Creation. What the music said was that there is a right way for things to be ordered so that life might not always be just tangle and drift, but have a shape, an aim. It was a powerful argument that life did not just happen. Charles Frazier powerful air comforting You never know when somebody will pull you to them. Charles Frazier knows He was himself a case in point, and perhaps not a rare one, for his spirit, it seemed, had been burned out of him but he was yet walking. Charles Frazier cold-mountain cases spirit Needing and getting don’t seem likely to match up any time soon... What needs doing is mine to do. Charles Frazier cold-mountain mines needs That's not a thing any of us are granted. To go back. Wipe away what later doesn't suit us and make it the way we wish it. You just go on Charles Frazier wipe goes-on wish Nothing changes what alreaday happened. It will always have happened. You either let it break you down or you don't. Charles Frazier happened break But she couldn't dismiss easily his light touch with her. No pushing or pressing, none of that herding and corralling bullshit, unlike any of her old boyfriends. And maybe who you fell for and who you eventually loved wasn't rational, no matter how hard you tried to list pros and cons and sum the results. You couldn't think your way through it, not all the way. Maybe just the scent of somebody carried more weight than everything else put together. Charles Frazier bullshit light thinking She wondered if literature might lose some of its interest when she reached an age or state of mind where her life was set on such a sure course that the things she read might stop seeming so powerfully like alternate directions for her being. Charles Frazier literature age mind Mainly because people were what they were and you couldn't change them. most of the time, they couldn't change themselves, even if they were desperate to be somebody different from who they were. So, best keep your distance. Charles Frazier distance different people [No] matter what a waste one has made of one's life, it is ever possible to find some path to redemption, however partial. Charles Frazier redemption waste matter Hardboiled crime fiction came of age in Black Mask magazine during the Twenties and Thirties. Writers like Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler learnt their craft and developed a distinct literary style and attitude toward the modern world. Charles Frazier style black attitude What I wanted to do was slap him down a bit with wit and words. Grammar and vocabulary as a weapon. But what kind of world would it be if we all took every opportunity presented to us to assault the weak? Charles Frazier vocabulary opportunity life
