“ The question ‘Why poetry?’ isn’t asking what makes poetry unique among art forms; poetry may indeed share its origins with other forms of privileged utterance. A somewhat more interesting question would be: “What is the nature of experience, and especially the experience of using language, that calls poetic utterance into existence? What is there about experience that’s unutterable?” You can’t generalize very usefully about poetry; you can’t reduce its nature down to a kernel that underlies all its various incarnations. I guess my internal conversation suggests that if you can’t successfully answer the question of “Why poetry?,” can’t reduce it in the way I think you can’t, then maybe that’s the strongest evidence that poetry’s doing its job; it’s creating an essential need and then satisfying it. ”
- Richard Ford- Copy
- 3.5K
“ The kind of happy I was that day at the Vet when "Hawk" Dawson actually doffed his red "C" cap to me, and everyone cheered and practically convulsed into tears you can't patent that. It was one shining moment of glory that was instantly gone. Whereas life, real life, is different and can't even be appraised as simply "happy", but only in terms of "Yes, I'll take it all, thanks" or "No, I believe I won't." Happy, as my poor father used to say, is a lot of hooey. Happy is a circus clown, a sitcom, a greeting card. Life, though, life's about something sterner. But also something better. A lot better. Believe me. ”
- Richard Ford- Copy
- 3.2K
“ It is no loss to mankind when one writer decides to call it a day. When a tree falls in the forest, who cares but the monkeys? ”
- Richard Ford- Copy
“ And I think that in myself (and perhaps evident in what I write) fear of loss and the corresponding instinct to protect myself against loss are potent forces. ”
- Richard Ford- Copy
“ I had written all I was going to write, if the truth had been known, and there is nothing wrong with that. If more writers knew that, the world would be saved a lot of bad books, and more peoplemen and women alikecould go on to happier, more productive lives. ”
- Richard Ford- Copy
“ Real mystery the very reason to read (and certainly write) any book was to them a thing to dismantle, distill and mine out into rubble they could tyrannize into sorry but more permanent explanations; monuments to themselves, in other words. In my view all teachers should be required to stop teaching at age thirtytwo and not allowed to resume until they're sixtyfive, so that they can live their lives, not teach them away live lives full of ambiguity and transience and regret and wonder, be asked to explain nothing in public until very near the end when they can't do anything else. Explaining is where we all get into trouble. ”
- Richard Ford- Copy
- 3.7K
“ Real mystery the very reason to read (and certainly write) any book was to them a thing to dismantle, distill and mine out into rubble they could tyrannize into sorry but more permanent explanations; monuments to themselves, in other words. In my view all teachers should be required to stop teaching at age thirtytwo and not allowed to resume until they're sixtyfive, so that they can live their lives, not teach them away live lives full of ambiguity and transience and regret and wonder, be asked to explain nothing in public until very near the end when they can't do anything else. Explaining is where we all get into trouble. ”
- Richard Ford- Copy
- 264
“ I had written all I was going to write, if the truth had been known, and there is nothing wrong with that. If more writers knew that, the world would be saved a lot of bad books, and more peoplemen and women alikecould go on to happier, more productive lives. ”
- Richard Ford- Copy
- 3K
“ The question ‘Why poetry?’ isn’t asking what makes poetry unique among art forms; poetry may indeed share its origins with other forms of privileged utterance. A somewhat more interesting question would be: “What is the nature of experience, and especially the experience of using language, that calls poetic utterance into existence? What is there about experience that’s unutterable?” You can’t generalize very usefully about poetry; you can’t reduce its nature down to a kernel that underlies all its various incarnations. I guess my internal conversation suggests that if you can’t successfully answer the question of “Why poetry?,” can’t reduce it in the way I think you can’t, then maybe that’s the strongest evidence that poetry’s doing its job; it’s creating an essential need and then satisfying it. ”
- Richard Ford- Copy
- 1.4K
“ 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 ch. ”
- Richard Ford- Copy
- 1.2K
“ There's a lot to be said for doing what you're not supposed to do, and the rewards of doing what you're 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 Ford- Copy
- 2.7K
“ You want to make it diverse. It would be kind of a blah competition if you had all the same soil orders. ”
- Richard Ford- Copy
- 2.7K
“ Married life requires shared mystery even when all the facts are known. ”
- Richard Ford- Copy
- 1K
“ Writing is the only thing I've ever done with persistence, except for being married. ”
- Richard Ford- Copy
- 895
“ 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 ch. ”
- Richard Ford- Copy
- 4K
“ 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. ”
- Richard Ford- Copy
- 1.9K
“ You want to make it diverse. It would be kind of a blah competition if you had all the same soil orders. ”
- Richard Ford- Copy
- 3.5K
“ 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. ”
- Richard Ford- Copy
- 1.6K
“ My assumption as a person who writes about moral issues is that women and men are alike. And in terms of their consequential acts, they have to be responsible for what they do in pretty much the same way, and the differences that are perhaps inspired by gender are subterior to what is more important to me - how men and women treat other people, how they act in ways that bring about consequences in others' lives. ”
- Richard Ford- Copy
- 1.1K
“ 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 ch. ”
- Richard Ford- Copy
- 1.9K
“ My assumption as a person who writes about moral issues is that women and men are alike. And in terms of their consequential acts, they have to be responsible for what they do in pretty much the same way, and the differences that are perhaps inspired by gender are subterior to what is more important to me - how men and women treat other people, how they act in ways that bring about consequences in others' lives. ”
- Richard Ford- Copy
- 2.7K
“ 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. ”
- Richard Ford- Copy
- 1.2K
“ My assumption as a person who writes about moral issues is that women and men are alike. And in terms of their consequential acts, they have to be responsible for what they do in pretty much the same way, and the differences that are perhaps inspired by gender are subterior to what is more important to me - how men and women treat other people, how they act in ways that bring about consequences in others' lives. ”
- Richard Ford- Copy
- 593
“ Married life requires shared mystery even when all the facts are known. ”
- Richard Ford- Copy
- 871
“ Married life requires shared mystery even when all the facts are known. ”
- Richard Ford- Copy
- 2.2K
“ 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. ”
- Richard Ford- Copy
- 3.2K
“ 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. ”
- Richard Ford- Copy
- 393
“ There's a lot to be said for doing what you're not supposed to do, and the rewards of doing what you're 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 Ford- Copy
- 663
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