When I write a novel I start each morning by reading for 20 minutes. Richard Ford More Quotes by Richard Ford More Quotes From Richard Ford The past is the prism through which we see a great, great, great deal of ourselves; it's a useful prism. It doesn't mean that we're fascinated by the dead or that we're fascinated by things that are settled. It is just one place where we can go to understand ourselves in the present. Richard Ford meanpast If Trump was just a piddly-ass little hotel owner some place, having the kind of character and manners that he has, he would not be worth our notice. But because he's now been based to this huge stage, then his dimensions become immense. He's not a tragic figure because he doesn't have the capacity to be tragic. But the consequences of his life and his self now are immense; they're threatening to the world and to the sanctity of human life. Richard Ford kindcharacterworld Humans generally get out the gist of what they need to say right at the beginning, then spend forever qualifying, contradicting, burnishing or taking important things back. Yor rareley miss anything by cutting most people off after two sentences. Richard Ford cuttingtwopeople We're all hoping that Trump doesn't get our world on his terms because there won't be anything of it left. Trump is a true psychopath, a psychopath in the way that tragedy becomes tragedy. Richard Ford psychopathtragedyworld Americans don't have saner gun laws because most Americans, including those citizens who puzzle over better angels, don't want saner gun laws. Richard Ford puzzlesgunangel I'm kind of a distractible guy. Richard Ford guykind Some people think that writers are innately solitary and that there's a kind of romance to that solitariness. I tend to think that what writers really want to do is get accepted into things. They want to get accepted into society, into culture, into intelligentsia, into the fun. Writing is their mechanism, their instrument, for doing that. Richard Ford writingfunthinking I went to college to study hospitality. I quickly got out of that and realized that what I liked to do was write. Richard Ford studycollegewriting I'm trying to cause people to be interested in the particulars of their lives because I think that's one thing literature can do for us. It can say to us: pay attention. Pay closer attention. Pay stricter attention to what you say to your son. Richard Ford peoplesonthinking You can't write ... on the strength of influence. You can only write a good story or a good novel by yourself. Richard Ford influencestorieswriting If sportswriting teaches you anything, and there is much truth to it as well as plenty of lies, it is that for your life to be worth anything you must sooner or later face the possibility of terrible, searing regret. Though you must also manage to avoid it or your life will be ruined. Richard Ford regretfaceslying With imagination, you can put something where nothing was. Richard Ford imagination Marry somebody you love and who thinks you being a writer's a good idea. Richard Ford good-ideasideasthinking A reader is entitled to believe what he or she believes is consonant with the facts of the book. It is not unusual that readers take away something that is spiritually at variance from what I myself experienced. That's not to say readers make up the book they want. We all have to agree on the facts. But readers bring their histories and all sets of longings. A book will pluck the strings of those longings differently among different readers. Richard Ford differentbelievebook I'm dyslexic. If you can reconcile yourself to not being able to burn through books, which you shouldn't any way, you can slow the whole process down. Then, because of my disability, there is more for me in imaginative literature than there is for other people. Richard Ford literaturebookpeople You can't always go to the well and have things be funny. Richard Ford wells My father died in my arms. That's tumult. That's everything exploding. Richard Ford explodingarmsfather In order to write novels for a living - it's not pathological, but I do think and worry and brood and fidget about stuff that I'm working on. Richard Ford writingorderthinking I've been mainly a happy boy in my life. I married the right girl and we did what we wanted to do. Richard Ford marriedgirlboys Tweet, tweet, you're alive, you ignorant asshole. Richard Ford tweetignorantalive
