It is sort of weird being honored for the worst day of your life.
BEN FOUNTAINThere 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.
More Ben Fountain Quotes
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It’s amazing what happens when you stick yourself in a place and let things take their more or less natural course.
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The Kessler Theater is one such gem, an Art Deco beauty … for a slice of real life, there’s always the Kessler.
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So many interlocking spirals of history, genetics, common cause, and struggle that it should be the most basic of all drives, that you would strive to protect and love one another, yet this bond that should be the big no-brainer was in fact the hardest thing.
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Maybe the light’s at the other end of the tunnel.
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Americans are incredibly polite as long as they get what they want.
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If you want to write, then write; if you don’t want to write, then don’t write. I fell into the former category, and I just made the decision that I’d keep on because I liked it and might someday do something decent.
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I think if you spend much time dwelling on influence you can get self-conscious about every line you write. That’s a great way to freeze up.
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I quit law in 1988 to start writing, and it took me 17 years from that point to get a book contract. I guess you can say I was on the slow train.
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It took me 10 years to write a story that pleased me – that I could look at after it was published and not cringe.
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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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Eruptions of talent continue to happen in Haiti, in spite of everything.
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I never listen to music when I’m writing.
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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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Haiti is unique – the first successful slave revolt in history, the first black republic etc., and then when you get into the culture, the voodoo, and that wonderful synchretization of Christian and African belief and symbology, it’s like nothing the world has ever seen.
BEN FOUNTAIN