It took me 10 years to write a story that pleased me - that I could look at after it was published and not cringe. Ben Fountain More Quotes by Ben Fountain More Quotes From Ben Fountain The smartest thing I did in law school: asking my future wife to go out dancing with me. The smartest thing I did when practicing law: quitting. The smartest thing I've done in writing: following my own head and writing what I wanted to write, and nothing but. Ben Fountain law writing school I thought when I started writing that I'd have a book out in four or five years, and as it became apparent that that wasn't going to happen, I became increasingly frustrated and unsure of myself. Ben Fountain writing book years I realized I was never going to have any peace with myself unless I made an honest stab at trying to write. Ben Fountain honest writing trying I quit law in 1988 to start writing, and it took me 17 years from that point to get a book contract. I guess you can say I was on the slow train. Ben Fountain writing book years I started publishing stories in small magazines early on, but after seven or eight or nine years you feel like you need a little more than that to show for your efforts. Ben Fountain eight effort years If a person wants to be of any use to himself, he better insist on getting his fair share of beauty and pleasure, and if there's something about the system that's keeping him from getting his share, then I think he's well within his rights to fight to change that. Ben Fountain fighting rights thinking A person deprived of beauty and pleasure puts me in mind of the Haitian notion of a zombie - a person disconnected from his or her soul, a person who works for others' profit but never his own, a person who mindlessly does the bidding of the boss and exists in an emotional and mental limbo. Ben Fountain boss emotional soul You have the mainstream bourgeois life of the U.S., Europe, the "developed" world - the life of technology, education, mortgages, careers, a certain level of physical comfort - while on the other hand, several billion people on the planet exist on less than a dollar a day. That's a huge and terrible reality to get your head around. Ben Fountain technology hands reality Eruptions of talent continue to happen in Haiti, in spite of everything. Ben Fountain eruption haiti talent Haiti is unique - the first successful slave revolt in history, the first black republic etc., and then when you get into the culture, the voodoo, and that wonderful synchretization of Christian and African belief and symbology, it's like nothing the world has ever seen. Ben Fountain unique successful christian It's amazing what happens when you stick yourself in a place and let things take their more or less natural course. Ben Fountain courses sticks natural I kept going back while I was writing the novel - which never sold, may it rest in peace - and by the time it was finished I had too many connections to Haiti to walk away. Ben Fountain rest-in-peace connections writing The funny thing is, about the time I let go of any aspiration toward worldly success, that's about the time I started writing decent work. Ben Fountain funny-things letting-go writing If you want to write, then write; if you don't want to write, then don't write. I fell into the former category, and I just made the decision that I'd keep on because I liked it and might someday do something decent. Ben Fountain decision want writing From about the age of 15 or 16 I'd had the notion that I wanted to write fiction, and I'd done enough in college to satisfy myself that I had a knack for it - I wouldn't call it "talent" - though I wondered if I'd ever have the guts to actually commit to it. Ben Fountain college age writing The Gilded Age robber barons - the Goulds, the Vanderbilts, the Morgans and Rockefellers - did quite well under laissez-faire. Most of the rest of Americans were still stuck in the ditch, with little to no economic security, life expectancy of roughly 45 years, and horrific infant mortality rates that claimed 300 babies per 1,000 in the cities. Ben Fountain rest security age life Democracy's premise rests on the notion that the collective wisdom of the majority will prove right more often than it's wrong; that given sufficient opportunity in the pursuit of happiness, your population will develop its talents, its intellect, its better judgment; that over time its capacity for discernment and self-correction will be enlarged. Ben Fountain democracy wisdom time happiness Pretty much any day is a good day to go to the ballpark, but that first day of the season is special. It's spring. The grass is green. Pessimism is impossible - at least, until the other team scores. Ben Fountain day good good-day green Nobody ever came to America with a starry-eyed dream of working for starvation wages. Ben Fountain nobody wages dream america The national framework of social insurance - social security, unemployment and disability benefits, work programs, and workers' compensation - protected citizens from the kinds of risks that private markets couldn't or wouldn't insure. Ben Fountain risks disability unemployment work
