“I think my characters - well, at least a few of them - are hoping or searching for some kind of contact with god.” Quote by Donald Ray Pollock
“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.” PeopleFeelsWritingBelieveSoulReasonMy OwnDuesEnvySupremeGood LifeAfterlifePresence Of GodSupreme BeingGood Souls Author:Donald Ray Pollock
“I look upon [writing about religion] as a nice way to get by in this precarious world, though I've never been able to do it myself.” WorldWayWritingLooksAbleNiceLook UpPrecarious Author:Donald Ray Pollock
“The biggest influence on my writing, besides snagging some ideas about black humor, was that the paper mill had a program where they paid 75 percent of the tuition and book [costs] for employees who wanted to go to college part-time.” WritingBookIdeasWantedBlackInfluenceCollegeCostPaperPercentProgramPaidEmployeeMillsPart TimeTuitionBlack Humor Author:Donald Ray Pollock
“I started going to Ohio University when I was in my mid-thirties, ended up with an English degree when I was forty.” DegreesUniversityFortyOhio Author:Donald Ray Pollock
“I'm not sure I would have ever decided to try to write when I was forty-five if I hadn't already gotten that degree [in English].” IfsWritingTryingFiveDegreesDecidedNot SureForty Author:Donald Ray Pollock
“[Degree in English] gave me a little more self-confidence, to know that I'd managed to complete something like that.” KnowsLittlesSelfDegreesSelf Confidence Author:Donald Ray Pollock
“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.” PeopleThinkingWritingYearsBookLastsThreeSixDiedSevenLike MeThree YearsCountyEpidemicsHeroinDealing With ItOverdoseAggravating Author:Donald Ray Pollock
“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.” MenLooksStillsReasonProblemSeemsMightAmericaBornFocusYouthPeriodsRacismGood ThingsLook UpOld ManNutsVietnamFondnessHeyday Author:Donald Ray Pollock
“Almost every other Western in the last ten years has failed, since Dances with Wolves.” YearsLastsTenWesternGdp Author:Lawrence Kasdan
“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.” YearsLooksMeanRememberIllusionFocusedNostalgiaSecureEtcHistorianJudgedNarcissistic Author:Donald Ray Pollock