“People have invoked the ghost of Hemingway quite a few times in writing about the book. I could get into sticky territory here if I let myself go on about this subject. The more I hear it, the more it rankles, frankly.” PeopleIfsWritingBookSubjectsGoes OnGhostTerritorySticky Author:Ron Currie Jr.
“When you're a child - and my understanding of it is very basic - but when you're a very young child, the stimuli around you prompt your brain to form synapses. Once they're there, they're there, but if they don't form by a certain age, they're not going to.” IfsChildrenAgeFormYoungCertainUnderstandingBrainStimulusYoung ChildrenPromptsSynapses Author:Ron Currie Jr.
“I wonder if kids growing up now are actually going to have that - if they're ever going to be able to unplug and have that ability to concentrate, or if it's just never going to happen for them. It's a little unnerving, frankly.” IfsLittlesHappensKidsAbleAbilityWonderGrowing UpGrowingKids Growing Up Author:Ron Currie Jr.
“On a micro level, if we're not terribly lucky, this sort of thing can happen to us quite frequently - the political becoming the personal in dramatic and irreparable ways. I remember the first time I went out into the desert, passing by all these mine fields and getting the history on them from my guide and realizing all these murderous mechanisms were real, were just sitting out there waiting for a victim, and some of them had been for sixty, seventy, eighty years.” IfsWayYearsFirstsRealHappensRememberPoliticalWaitingRealizingLevelsFieldsMinesBecomingLuckySittingFirst TimeVictimGuidesPassingPassingsDesertDramaticMechanismSixtySeventiesEightyIrreparablePassing By Author:Ron Currie Jr.
“If I had a nickel for every time someone told me apologetically "I don't read fiction," I wouldn't have to write fiction anymore. And I share that fascination with the truth. I'm not looking down my nose at it.” IfsWritingFictionShareNosesFascinationLooking DownNickels Author:Ron Currie Jr.
“I don't know if it's something that we as a species are hardwired for or if it's more of a contemporary phenomenon related to technology and rapid dissemination of data. I did know that whatever its cause or nature, I wanted to interrogate this phenomenon. But the only way for me to do that, the only tool I have to dissect it with, is a fictional narrative.” IfsKnowsWayWantedCausesTechnologyToolsSpeciesContemporaryDataNarrativeRelatedPhenomenonRapidsDissemination Author:Ron Currie Jr.
“A lot of the despair we feel watching the news every day flows from our sense of helplessness, and as a fiction writer you get to control things, if only on the page. You get to run the show. You can right wrongs, bring departed loved ones back to life, even take vengeance on God, if that's your thing.” IfsFeelsShowsRunningFictionDespairNewsPagesFlowLoved OnesVengeanceHelplessnessFiction WritersDeparted Author:Ron Currie Jr.
“One of the great things about the Bible, one of the things I think keeps people coming back to it, is that it's nothing if not perpetually topical. You don't have to dig too deeply into today's paper to find slaves and masters, evil authorities.” PeopleIfsThinkingTodayEvilMastersAuthorityPaperSlaveGreat ThingsComing Back Author:Ron Currie Jr.
“I'm definitely excited by big ideas, both in what I write and what I read. Most days, reality is so mind-numbingly dull that I don't understand why someone would write strictly realistic stories, given the almost limitless freedom fiction provides. I don't see the point of making believe if you're not going to actually make believe: hang your ass out in the wind, push at every boundary, make almost unreasonable demands on your reader's willingness to suspend disbelief. This is dangerous, and prone to failure, but that's part of what makes it fun.” IfsWritingMindBelieveIdeasStoriesBigsRealityGivenFunFictionDangerousWindReaderDemandExcitedBoundariesAssDullWillingnessRealisticLimitlessDisbeliefUnreasonableMake BelieveBig Ideas Author:Ron Currie Jr.
“I am not your God. Or if I am, I'm no God you can seek out for deliverance or explanation. I'm the kind of God who would eat you without compunction if I were hungry.” IfsKindHungryExplanationDeliveranceCompunction Author:Ron Currie Jr.
