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1. black
2. grey
3. blue
4. red
5. brown
6. white

It took me 10 years to write a story that pleased me – that I could look at after it was published and not cringe.

Ben Fountain

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  I realized I was never going to have any peace with myself unless I made an honest stab at trying to write.

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  By the end of the first decade of writing, I considered myself a confirmed failure in the eyes of the world.

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  Somewhere along the way America became a giant mall with a country attached.

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  Eruptions of talent continue to happen in Haiti, in spite of everything.

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  The funny thing is, about the time I let go of any aspiration toward worldly success, that’s about the time I started writing decent work.

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  Maybe the light’s at the other end of the tunnel.

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  You’d think family would be the one sure thing in life, the gimme? Points you got just for being born? So much thick, meaty stuff bound you to these people.

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  From about the age of 15 or 16 I’d had the notion that I wanted to write fiction, and I’d done enough in college to satisfy myself that I had a knack for it – I wouldn’t call it “talent” – though I wondered if I’d ever have the guts to actually commit to it.

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  I kept going back while I was writing the novel – which never sold, may it rest in peace – and by the time it was finished I had too many connections to Haiti to walk away.

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  If you could figure out how to live with family then you’d gone a long way toward finding your peace.

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  Late bloomer’ is another way of saying ‘slow learner.

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  At a certain point I decided to keep on because I felt like the work was getting better, and I was taking great pleasure in that.

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  There was no such thing as perfection in this world, only moments of such extreme transparency that you forgot yourself, a holy mercy if there ever was one.

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  The smartest thing I did in law school: asking my future wife to go out dancing with me. The smartest thing I did when practicing law: quitting. The smartest thing I’ve done in writing: following my own head and writing what I wanted to write, and nothing but.

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