If I can tell you the story from beginning to end in five minutes, I'm ready to start writing. Richard Price More Quotes by Richard Price More Quotes From Richard Price The bigger the issue, the smaller you write. Remember that. You don't write about the horrors of war. No. You write about a kid's burnt socks lying on the road. You pick the smallest manageable part of the big thing, and you work off the resonance. Richard Price writing war lying You don't write about the horrors of war. No. You write about a kid's burnt socks lying in the road. Richard Price writing war lying And what is the religion of many persons but a kind of demonism that delights in human sacrifices and causes them to look with horror on the greatest part of mankind? Plutarch, it is well known, has observed very justly that it is better not to believe in a god than to believe him to be a capricious and malevolent being. Richard Price sacrifice religious believe I don't write police stories, per se, but I usually write about areas that are very panoramic, like Harlem, or the Lower East Side, or a small urban city like Jersey City. Richard Price police cities writing I don't need all that much - I just need to know who my characters are and what kind of jam they're going to get into, and I'll write myself out of their jam. Richard Price writing character needs I'd love to be a saxophonist. I don't know why, but I pretend I'm the saxophonist when I listen to music. I have about as much chance playing the sax as I do learning how to fly. Richard Price listening-to-music chance knows The first thing to look out for after your first big success are drugs and screenplays. Richard Price drug looks firsts I have offices all over the place and I avoid work everywhere. I don't like to write - I like to be finished. Richard Price finished office writing I think the definition of an artist is not necessarily tied into excellence or talent; an artist is somebody who, if you took away their freedom to make art, would lose their mind. Richard Price mind art thinking As the industry has matured, real estate has become a very accepted investment. Institutions have used core investments to get comfortable with real estate as an asset class, and now that they're comfortable they're moving up the risk spectrum. Richard Price real class moving The more I hung out with detective squads, the more there was always one guy or two guys or a woman who had a case that they were the primary on years ago, it was never solved, and they take that case into their retirements. Richard Price squad retirement years Writers spend three years rearranging 26 letters of the alphabet. It's enough to make you lose your mind day by day Richard Price mind letters years In a given scene I may know nothing more than how it's supposed to end, most of the time not even that. Scenes are improvised. A character does or says something, and with as much spontaneity and schizophrenia as I can muster, another character responds. In this way, everything I write is spontaneous chain reaction and I'm running around playing leapfrog in my brain trying to "be" all my people. Richard Price writing running character I do small cameos here and there but nothing that requires more than a paragraph of talking, because I'm just an amateur. The movie is a whole different reality. Richard Price here-and-there talking reality Some day, my son, you are going to learn that the two greatest joys of being a man are beating the hell out of someone and getting the hell beaten out of you, good night. Richard Price good-night men son I can never read this book, just like I can never see a movie that I wrote a screenplay for. I can read it and see it physically, but I can't accurately judge it. I'm too close to it. If I read it ten times I'll have ten different reactions. Richard Price different judging book I write because I can't imagine not writing. Richard Price because-i-can imagine writing I started thinking about my relationship with my students; I'm this guy who comes in from book - and movie - land and descends on angel wings into their classroom. Richard Price angel relationship book I write because I write - as anyone in the arts does. You're a painter because you feel you have no choice but to paint. You're a writer because this is what you do. Richard Price choices writing art The bigger the issue, the smaller you write. Richard Price issues bigger writing
