Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Some people were born just so they could be buried.
I sort of like writing about weird characters, I guess.
I don't think writing fiction has changed my worldview.
I've always been a bit of a pessimist in regard to mankind.
I was always a big reader, even when everything was bad and miserable.
I'm probably the least cerebral guy you're ever going to meet as a writer.
When I turned fifty, I decided to quit the mill and go to graduate school.
I don't really think the outburst is recent; there have always been writers in Appalachia.
A lot of people get the wrong impression, think there's something romantic or tragic about hitting bottom.
I've never heard of that anthology [Vance Randolph, Pissing in the Snow], but you can be sure I'll buy it now.
I really have no idea what the French think of my characters, or why The Devil All the Time did so well there.
I think my characters - well, at least a few of them - are hoping or searching for some kind of contact with god.
I started going to Ohio University when I was in my mid-thirties, ended up with an English degree when I was forty.
[Degree in English] gave me a little more self-confidence, to know that I'd managed to complete something like that.
I'm beginning to believe that anything I do to extend my life is just going to be outweighed by the agony of living it.
Id always been a big reader, and I loved books, and I always thought writing would be a great way to get by in the world.
I'd always been a big reader, and I loved books, and I always thought writing would be a great way to get by in the world.
I spent thirty-two years in a paper mill in southern Ohio, and before that I worked in a meatpacking plant and a shoe factory.
I spent thirty-two years in a paper mill in southern Ohio, and before that, I worked in a meatpacking plant and a shoe factory.
I'm not sure about 'absolute' happiness, but I am happiest when I go to bed at night knowing that I tried to do my best that day.
I'm not sure I would have ever decided to try to write when I was forty-five if I hadn't already gotten that degree [in English].
Look, girls don't care how many push-ups you can do. They just want to get high and wear flowers in their hair. Maybe steal a car.
I look upon [writing about religion] as a nice way to get by in this precarious world, though I've never been able to do it myself.
I'm not really a good reader. What I mean is, I think I'm not one of those people who can read a story and analyze it just like that.
I don't think I'd call [mood] a major force, but it is important as far as hitting the right notes or nuances with a character or scene.
When I was growing up, I always wanted to be somebody else and live somewhere else. I've always felt a little uncomfortable around people.
Though there are still many good people out there in the world, it seems that they're vastly outnumbered by the stupid, selfish, violent ones.
Don't get me wrong: I think that everyone should put forth an effort to do better, but let's face it, some of us are just plain luckier than others.
Michael Koryta is an amazingly talented writer, and I rank The Prophet as one of the sharpest and superbly plotted crime novels I've read in my life.
The Oxys filled holes in me I hadn't realized were empty. It was, at least for those first few months, a wonderful way to be disabled. I felt blessed.
I am very indebted to southern writers and not just Flannery O'Connor. Also Harry Crews, Larry Brown, Tennessee Williams, Barry Hannah and William Gay.
I'm not sure what the proper label might be, or the most accurate one, but someone once called my stuff Southern Ohio Gothic and I thought that was fair.
J.R. Angelella is a truly gifted writer. Zombie is one of the smartest, strangest, and most beautifully crafted coming-of-age stories you will ever encounter.
When I was growing up, I just wanted to be somewhere else. I didn't like living in Knockemstiff, and I figured when I got older, I'd move off to some big city.
If the story wasn't overly long, I'd type it out. And I'd carry it around with me for a week and jot notes on it, and then I'd throw it away and do another one.
When I first started out, I was trying to write stories about nurses and lawyers and a lot of people I didn't know anything about, and they just weren't working.
If a person does this for just a couple of years and discovers that it just isn't for him, that's okay. At least he can move on knowing that he gave it his best shot.
I listen to a lot of different stuff, from Mozart to Johnny Dowd to Monster Magnet. I don't listen to music while I'm writing a draft, but I do listen to it when I'm revising.
I think the biggest influence on the book, as far as the humor goes, comes, at least indirectly, from the men I worked with in the paper mill. Some of them could make a dog laugh.
Four hundred or so people lived in Knockemstiff in 1957, nearly all of them connected by blood through one godforsaken calamity or another, be it lust or necessity or just plain ignorance.
I was 35 when I started taking classes at Ohio University. After I got my degree, I kept working at the mill. When I was 45, I decided I was going to try to learn how to write short stories.
As for how I feel about any success I've had, I just feel extremely lucky. Writing is a tough racket, and there are a lot of writers out there better than me who can't seem to catch a break.
I would try to write my own story about some East Coast suburbanite having an affair or something like that. So I did that for maybe two years or so, and it just wasn't working for me at all.
I'm always doubting my work, even when people are kind enough to say good things. I still have a hard time believing I've written some books, let alone that they've actually done pretty well.
One of the reasons I write about religion is due to my own envy of people who truly feel the presence of god in their lives, good souls who believe devoutly in a supreme being and an afterlife.
Knockemstiff is a collection of short stories set in the holler of the same name in southern Ohio where I grew up. I tried to link the stories together through the place and some recurring characters.
The humor I came up with is, for the most part, a bit crude or guttural, and many people aren't going to get it or enjoy it, but some do, and that means a lot to me - to know that I made someone laugh.
'Knockemstiff' is a collection of short stories set in the holler of the same name in southern Ohio where I grew up. I tried to link the stories together through the place and some recurring characters.
I remember a class I taught at Ohio State where I assigned a Mary Gaitskill story, which really wasn't that bad, and I had this one girl refuse to read it. But better that reaction than no reaction at all.
I worked in a paper mill all my adult life and there were a lot of funny guys there. So you pick up on that. Even though something really bad might have happened to somebody you can still make a joke out of it.