Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
The heart makes dreams seem like ideas.
I said shut up once already, with my mouth.
Never. Never ask for what ought to be offered.
Texas humor and Southern humor are pretty similar.
I didn't really expect to be coming to the Oscars.
I have a Ford Taurus, and I don't care who knows it.
I'm not from the movie world. I'm from the book world.
If I weren't so lazy, I would have 14 books, not eight.
This is how sudden things happened that haunted forever.
I liked my fellow Marines. I didn't like pointless orders.
I felt like a number of things in me as a writer just clicked.
My father was a salesman, and I always said I wouldn't be one.
The opening novel of the 'Bayou Trilogy' was the first one I finished.
It's not always to the benefit of the story to have it so preordained.
When poetry is on the money, 12 words can slay you. I admire that greatly.
I love Shakespeare and the Greeks - learned a lot studying them at one time.
When I started to be a writer, I was not going to run the risk of boring you.
A person has to show some spirit -- fate just about never shines on chickenshits.
I, myself, often wished to be spared the expectation of better days ahead or such.
I was not much used to women except for mothers. Everything I did, they did different.
I guess it's ridiculously romantic, but I wanted to be a full tilt, sink-or-swim writer.
I'm always writing about character first. Plot, such as it is, comes from the characters.
There's an overlap between social-realist fiction and crime fiction - a sweet spot there.
I've bumped into at least three people in town who all insist 'Winter's Bone' is about them.
I had been born shoved to the margins of the world, sure, but I had volunteered for the pits.
Fading light buttered the ridges until shadows licked them clean and they were lost to nightfall.
I've always been fascinated by the Mississippi River and the way of life in these small river towns.
I had gone to enlist in the Navy, but they had a long waiting list and no need for high-school dropouts.
The heart's in it then, spinning dreams, and torment is on the way. The heart makes dreams seem like ideas.
You realize you're alive while you're alive, and you better notice it then, because later, it's hard to see.
I've been at writing long enough now to know that every three or four books, I have to start a new direction.
I always loved the verve and vivacity of pulp and I kind of merged it with my own interest in family stories.
But I've been at writing long enough now to know that every three or four books I have to start a new direction.
You want to hear an agent scream, say, 'I'm thinking about doing a collection of short stories set in the Ozarks.'
Long, dark, and lovely she had been, in those days before her mind broke and the parts scattered and she let them go.
Just because it's got a gun doesn't make it a crime novel, and just because there's a horse doesn't make it a western.
Pine trees with low limbs spread over fresh snow made a stronger vault for the spirit than pews and pulpits ever could.
I'd met some awfully tough gals in my life, and I find them compelling, if I don't have to socialize with them too much.
Earned a bachelor's at 27, then an M.F.A. that is still completely unused and in mint condition, never taken out of the box.
I have always loved short stories. I have been at least as influenced by the short story masters as I have been by novelists.
I'm very attracted to poetry for all the reasons someone likes poetry. The notion of compression seems to fit my personality.
Most of my characters aren't hillbillies anyway. Let's just call them proletariat with a disposition towards criminal activity.
I can't say that dropping out of school at 16 to join the Marines was my best idea. On the other hand, maybe it was. Who knows?
I think all regions have had their peculiarities of speech rounded off by television, radio, and people travel so much more now.
I rise near dawn, make a strong cup of coffee, wander to my desk and come fully awake by reading something written the day before.
I joined the Marines the week I turned 17, and that led to a few experiences that might qualify as adventure - eye of the beholder.
I think there are some folks who don't particularly like what I have to say, but on the whole, the reaction has been very positive.
It was in a grim room on Eddy Street that I finally opened 'A Moveable Feast.' I read it all overnight. I read it again the next day.
I was basically raised to look for chances to get even with several families for stuff that happened 30 or 40 years before I was born.
I don't want to be callous about it, but we all seemed to get over the Oklahoma bombing pretty quickly, and we're never going to get over 9/11.