Latest Donald Ray Pollock Quotes from Interviews

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• I really have no idea where the darkness comes from. Other writers have said that there are two subjects worth writing about, love and death; and since I'm a complete flop when it comes to love, I chose death. Too, maybe because of where I came from, I do find it easy to empathise with and write about certain groups of damaged or downtrodden people: the poor, the addicted.

  Donald Ray Pollock

  Writing, People, Darkness

  Source: thequietus.com

• 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.

  Donald Ray Pollock

  Believe, Book, Hard Times

  Source: thequietus.com

• 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.

  Donald Ray Pollock

  Writing, Lucky, Tough

  Source: thequietus.com

• It's very easy for me to feel sympathy for people who are messed up. It's not that I'm a pseudo-saint or a great person. I had a lot of trouble with drugs and alcohol when I was younger, and I know how easy it can be to mess up the rest of your life. One bad turn, one bad night, one big mistake, and everything is screwed up. Or maybe you were just born in the wrong house and raised in a bad way. I guess I can understand.

  Donald Ray Pollock

  Mistake, Night, People

  Source: www.avclub.com

• Religion can be a good thing, but basically the way I look at it is that it provides a moral code, common sense. But then people distort it and use it as an excuse to be a bully. It's sad, but that's the way it's worked for a several thousand years now.

  Donald Ray Pollock

  People, Common Sense, Bully

  Source: www.avclub.com

• You're always hoping you can attract a bigger audience, but at the same time, I'd hate to give up what I write. If I could write Chick Lit or something like that and make money off it, that'd be great. But I just can't do it.

  Donald Ray Pollock

  Giving Up, Hate, Writing

  Source: www.avclub.com

• I do believe the world is a pretty sad, troubled, and violent place. Maybe that's why I focus on the trouble. Even though there are good people and good things, there's also a bunch of messed up stuff. And I learned early on, you have to have some trouble in your stories. I definitely go overboard on that, but I have a lot more fun writing about the trouble.

  Donald Ray Pollock

  Fun, Believe, Writing

  Source: www.avclub.com

• I didn't feel that so much as an outsider when I started writing; I've felt that way all my life. I don't know, man; I guess I was just wired wrong. 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. And I'm not trying to romanticize this, because it wasn't romantic. I wasn't trying to be a rebel; I just always felt a little out of it. I think that's why it's pretty easy for me to identify with people living on the margins.

  Donald Ray Pollock

  Growing Up, Writing, Men

  Source: www.avclub.com

• 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.

  Donald Ray Pollock

  Couple, Moving, Years

  Source: therumpus.net

• 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.

  Donald Ray Pollock

  Selfish, Stupid, People

  Source: therumpus.net

• It depends on what your dream might be, as to whether or not it's still possible when you're, say, fifty or sixty. You won't ever pitch for the big leagues, for example. But I believe anyone, regardless of age, can write if he or she is willing to do the work, and I'm talking about spending at least an hour or two at it almost every day for five to ten years.

  Donald Ray Pollock

  Dream, Believe, Writing

  Source: therumpus.net

• I've always been a bit of a pessimist in regard to mankind.

  Donald Ray Pollock

  Pessimist, Mankind, Regard

  Source: therumpus.net

• I guess music is the one universal art form that most people can be moved by, regardless of where they come from, and for many it might be the closest they get to god, but I think taking a trip out into the country, away from the light pollution, and looking at a clear night sky is what does it best for me.

  Donald Ray Pollock

  Country, Art, Night

  Source: therumpus.net

• I don't think writing fiction has changed my worldview.

  Donald Ray Pollock

  Writing, Thinking, Fiction

  Source: therumpus.net

• 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.

  Donald Ray Pollock

  Character, Thinking, Important

  Source: therumpus.net

• For example, if it's a sad scene, I need to feel that way, at least to a slight degree and for a short while, to get it right. Which is why I sometimes listen to music when I'm revising. Music creates moods for me quicker than any other medium.

  Donald Ray Pollock

  Degrees, Example, Needs

  Source: therumpus.net

• It was really just the name that inspired me: Rainsboro. It's located near Rocky Fork State Park. I have probably driven through that little place a thousand times, but, in that weird way my mind works sometimes, one particular evening it just hit me the right way, I guess. Created a mood more than anything else. And then I started thinking about a woman and her young son who end up there.

  Donald Ray Pollock

  Son, Thinking, Names

  Source: therumpus.net

• There are a lot of writers from the South who would probably have once figured they needed to go to New York to make it who have stayed closer to home - people like David Joy, Tom Franklin, Sheldon Lee Compton, Wiley Cash, Mark Powell, and Alex Taylor.

  Donald Ray Pollock

  New York, Home, People

  Source: therumpus.net

• I don't really think the outburst is recent; there have always been writers in Appalachia.

  Donald Ray Pollock

  Thinking, Outburst, Appalachia

  Source: therumpus.net

• I really have no idea what the French think of my characters, or why The Devil All the Time did so well there.

  Donald Ray Pollock

  Character, Thinking, Ideas

  Source: therumpus.net

• I do think they [French] view my writing itself as exotic - though that's probably not the best term for it - to a small extent, mainly because I say things that most French writers would probably hesitate to say for fear of offending someone or upsetting public sensibilities. I don't think that answers the question, but I'm not much good at figuring readers out or I would probably be writing bestsellers.

  Donald Ray Pollock

  Writing, Thinking, Views

  Source: therumpus.net

• 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.

  Donald Ray Pollock

  Ohio, Southern, Labels

  Source: therumpus.net

• Part of the reason might be that I was born in 1954 and I look upon my youth with great fondness, like many old men. And, though my work doesn't focus much on good things, I see that period as America's heyday. True, we had many problems, like racism and Vietnam, but we still weren't quite as nuts as we seem to be now.

  Donald Ray Pollock

  Men, Nuts, America

  Source: therumpus.net

• Nostalgia is partly illusion in that we remember things differently as we get older, etc. But that doesn't mean, when historians look back on the 1950s, say, from the year 2090, it won't be judged as a saner, slower, less narcissistic, more family-focused, and economically secure time.

  Donald Ray Pollock

  Mean, Years, Looks

  Source: therumpus.net

• Probably because I personally knew at least six or seven people in Ross County who died from overdoses in the last three years. The heroin epidemic is just too aggravating and sad and unsettling for even someone like me to live with and think about for the time it would take to write a book dealing with it.

  Donald Ray Pollock

  Book, Writing, Thinking

  Source: therumpus.net