My job is to have empathy and curiosity for things that I've never done. Also, I'm a person whom people talk to.
Richard FordYou can't write ... on the strength of influence. You can only write a good story or a good novel by yourself.
Richard FordTheres a lot to be said for doing what youre not supposed to do, and the rewards of doing what youre supposed to do are more subtle and take longer to become apparent, which maybe makes it less attractive. But your life is the blueprint you make after the building is built.
Richard FordOnly sometimes you can't feel anything about a subject without hypothesizing its extinction.
Richard FordSome 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