"Writing never came naturally and I still have to force my hand to do it."
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Quote collection
Richard Ford quotes (page 3 of 6)
105 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"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."
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"You're only good if you can do bad and decide not to."
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"Cynicism makes you feel smart, I know it, even when you aren't smart."
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"Being a slow reader would normally be a deficiency; I found a way to make it an asset. I began to sound words and see all those qualities - in a way it made words more precious to me. Since so much of what happens in the world between human beings has to do with the inconsideration of language, with the imprecision of language, with language leaving our mouths unmediated, one thing which was sensuous and visceral led to, in the use of language, a moral gesture. It was about trying to use language to both exemplify and articulate what good is."
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"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."
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"You can't write ... on the strength of influence. You can only write a good story or a good novel by yourself."
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"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."
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"I went to college to study hospitality. I quickly got out of that and realized that what I liked to do was write."
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"The National Rifle Association is a domestic terrorist organization that tacitly supports the killing of children more than it supports reasoned gun legislation."
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"Most things don't stay the way they are very long."
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"Life's passed along to us empty. We have to make up the happiness part."
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"It is right that you have to have a tolerance for solitude. But when that solitude bears fruit, you can abandon it. You can be in the company of others."
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"Fear and hope are alike underneath."
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"When people realize they are being listened to, they tell you things."
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"I don't have a very logical and orderly mind."
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"Very early you come to the realization that nothing will ever take you away from yourself."
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"The pace of life feels morally dangerous to me."
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"Only sometimes you can't feel anything about a subject without hypothesizing its extinction."
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"Paul Ryan's just a really, deeply evil little creature. But he's not little; he's actually quite tall, I'm sorry to see. I'm always sorry when really bad guys are tall."
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