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Richard Ford

Richard Ford Quotes

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Famous Richard Ford Quotes

“Finally I do like best of all stories whose necessity is in the implied recognition that someplace out there there exists an urgency-a chaos-, an insanity, a misrule of some dire sort which can end life as we know it but for the fact that this very story is written, this order found, this style determined, the worst averted, and we are beneficiaries of that order by being readers”

KnowsEndsFactsStoriesOrderFoundWrittenWorstStyleReaderChaosDeterminedRecognitionInsanityUrgencyImpliedBeneficiaries
Author:Richard Ford
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“They may already know too much about their mother and father--nothing being more factual than divorce, where so much has to be explained and worked through intelligently (though they have tried to stay equable). I've noticed this is often the time when children begin calling their parents by their first names, becoming little ironists after their parents' faults. What could be lonelier for a parent than to be criticized by his child on a first-name basis?”

KnowsFirstsMayChildrenLittlesMotherFatherNamesParentToo MuchBecomingCallingBasesFaultsDivorceMother And FatherFactual
Author:Richard Ford
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“It's been my habit of mind, over these years, to understand that every situation in which human beings are involved can be turned on its head. Everything someone assures me to be true might not be. Every pillar of belief the world rests on may or may not be about to explode. Most things don't stay the way they are very long. Knowing this, however, has not made me cynical. Cynical means believing that good isn't possible; and I know for a fact that good is. I simply take nothing for granted and try to be ready for the change that's soon to come.”

KnowsWorldWayTryingYearsMindBelieveHumansMayMeanLongMadeFactsMightBeliefHuman BeingsSituationKnowingReadyHabitInvolvedBeing TrueGrantedCynicalPillarsHabits Of MindTake Nothing For Granted
Author:Richard Ford
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“Any rainy summer morning, of course, has the seeds of gloomy alienation sown in. But a rainy summer morning far from home - when your personal clouds don't move but hang - can easily produce the feeling of the world as seen from the grave. This I know.”

KnowsWorldFeelingsHomeMovingCoursesMorningProduceSummerCloudsSeedsGravesAlienationGloomyRainy
Book:The Bascombe Novels: The Sportswriter, Independence Day, The Lay of the Land
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“When you are sixteen you do not know what your parents know, or much of what they understand, and less of what's in their hearts. This can save you from becoming an adult too early, save your life from becoming only theirs lived over again--which is a loss. But to shield yourself--as I didn't do--seems to be an even greater error, since what's lost is the truth of your parents' life and what you should think about it, and beyond that, how you should estimate the world you are about to live in.”

ThinkingKnowsWorldShouldHeartSeemsLostParentLossGreaterBecomingAdultsErrorsShieldsSixteenBecoming An Adult
Book:Wildlife
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“Something will be there when the flood recedes. We know that. It will be those people now standing in the water, and on those rooftops - many black, many poor. Homeless. Overlooked. And it will be New Orleans - though its memory may be shortened, its self-gaze and eccentricity scoured out so that what's left is a city more like other cities, less insular, less self-regarding, but possibly more self-knowing after today. A city on firmer ground.”

PeopleKnowsMaySelfTodayLeftBlackWaterMemoriesPoorCitiesKnowingStandingFloodHomelessNew OrleansOverlookedEccentricityRooftopsSelf Knowing
Author:Richard Ford
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