Donald Ray Pollock Quotes - Page 2

Quotes about:

• 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

  7 Copy quote

• 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

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  4 Copy quote

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

  Donald Ray Pollock

  Writing, Thinking, Fiction

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

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

  Donald Ray Pollock

  Pessimist, Mankind, Regard

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  4 Copy quote

• I don't think my book is any more shocking than if I went out right now and brought back your local newspaper and found a story that happened around here yesterday or the day before that's just as shocking as anything in my book.

  Donald Ray Pollock

  Book, Thinking, Yesterday

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• 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.

  Donald Ray Pollock

  Girl, Ohio State, Class

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• The way I saw the characters these things just happened naturally. At the same time - and I know it's probably not apparent when you read the book - but I really tried to hold back because I didn't want it to become a cartoon.

  Donald Ray Pollock

  Book, Character, Cartoon

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• I'm trying to break myself of that habit [of not writing out a first draft ] because I'm working on a couple novels and I know if I tried to write those books the way I wrote the stories it would take me years to finish.

  Donald Ray Pollock

  Couple, Book, Writing

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• 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.

  Donald Ray Pollock

  Guy, Adults, Paper

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• 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.

  Donald Ray Pollock

  Writing, Nurse, People

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• I took a correspondence course with a guy at Ohio University. He gave me ten exercises, and one of them resulted in the story "Bactine." It pleased me a lot more than anything else I'd ever done, so I kept messing around and by the time I got to Ohio State I'd written maybe eight stories.

  Donald Ray Pollock

  Exercise, Eight, Ohio State

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• I've always liked reading books that contain funny lines or situations, and maybe because my work is known chiefly for its violence and misery, I made a more conscious attempt with The Heavenly Table to do that myself.

  Donald Ray Pollock

  Book, Reading, Lines

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• When I started graduate school we did this publishing class where we learned about submitting and read interviews with editors from different magazines. A lot of them said they got so many submissions that unless the first page stuck out or the first paragraph or even the first sentence they'll probably send it back. So part of my idea was that if I have a really good first sentence maybe they'll read on a bit further. At least half, maybe more of the stories in Knockemstiff started with the first sentence; I got it down then went from there.

  Donald Ray Pollock

  School, Editors, Class

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• I've never heard of that anthology [Vance Randolph, Pissing in the Snow], but you can be sure I'll buy it now.

  Donald Ray Pollock

  Snow, Anthology, Heard

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• 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.

  Donald Ray Pollock

  Dog, Book, Men

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• I think some people at Doubleday worried about that a bit when Knockemstiff came out, but, with the exception of one or two people who complained that I didn't do justice to the many good people who lived in the holler, most of the local objections have been aimed at the violence and foul language.

  Donald Ray Pollock

  Thinking, Two, People

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• I had this bad habit of not writing out a first draft and going back. For me it was the first sentence, then the second sentence, and I might be several weeks on the first page instead of writing a draft and trying to figure it out from there.

  Donald Ray Pollock

  Writing, Trying, Might

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• 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.

  Donald Ray Pollock

  Good Life, Believe, Writing

  Source: therumpus.net

  5 Copy quote

• 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

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  4 Copy quote

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