"It's interesting to leave a place, interesting even to think about it. Leaving reminds us of what we can part with and what we can't, then offers us something new to look forward to, to dream about."

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Source: 1992 'An Urge for Going', in Harper's, Feb.

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Richard Ford

Novelist

Richard Ford is an acclaimed American author known for his insightful exploration of identity and human experience in novels like 'The Sportswriter.'

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Richard Ford Novelist

"Construed as turf, home just seems a provisional claim, a designation you make upon a place, not one it makes on you. A certain set of buildings, a glimpsed, smudged window-view across a schoolyard, a musty aroma sniffed behind a garage when you were a child, all of which come crowding in upon your latter-day senses -- those are pungent things and vivid, even consoling. But to me they are also inert and nostalgic and unlikely to connect you to the real, to that essence art can sometimes achieve, which is permanence."

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