Quote

When I first started out, I was trying to write stories about nurses and lawyers and a lot of people I didn't know anything about, and they just weren't working.

Donald Ray Pollock

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Donald Ray Pollock
Age: 70
Born: 1954
Born: December 23
Novelist
Writer
Knockemstiff
Ohio
Didn
Nurses
Stories
Lawyers
Anything
Nurse
Firsts
Weren
First
Lawyer
Writing
Started
Trying
Working
People
Write

More quotes by Donald Ray Pollock

Image
I don't really think the outburst is recent there have always been writers in Appalachia.
Donald Ray Pollock
Image
I worked in a paper mill all my adult life and there were a lot of funny guys there. So you pick up on that. Even though something really bad might have happened to somebody you can still make a joke out of it.
Donald Ray Pollock
Image
Knockemstiff is a collection of short stories set in the holler of the same name in southern Ohio where I grew up. I tried to link the stories together through the place and some recurring characters.
Donald Ray Pollock
Image
I've never heard of that anthology [Vance Randolph, Pissing in the Snow], but you can be sure I'll buy it now.
Donald Ray Pollock
Image
Unless he had whiskey running through his veins, Willard came to the clearing every morning and evening to talk to God. Arvin didn't know which was worse, the drinking or the praying. As far back as he could remember, it seemed that his father had fought the Devil all the time.
Donald Ray Pollock
Image
I was always a big reader, even when everything was bad and miserable.
Donald Ray Pollock
Image
Though there are still many good people out there in the world, it seems that they're vastly outnumbered by the stupid, selfish, violent ones.
Donald Ray Pollock
Image
When I turned fifty, I decided to quit the mill and go to graduate school.
Donald Ray Pollock
Image
I don't think my book is any more shocking than if I went out right now and brought back your local newspaper and found a story that happened around here yesterday or the day before that's just as shocking as anything in my book.
Donald Ray Pollock
Image
I spent thirty-two years in a paper mill in southern Ohio, and before that I worked in a meatpacking plant and a shoe factory.
Donald Ray Pollock
Image
I think some people at Doubleday worried about that a bit when Knockemstiff came out, but, with the exception of one or two people who complained that I didn't do justice to the many good people who lived in the holler, most of the local objections have been aimed at the violence and foul language.
Donald Ray Pollock
Image
I've always liked reading books that contain funny lines or situations, and maybe because my work is known chiefly for its violence and misery, I made a more conscious attempt with The Heavenly Table to do that myself.
Donald Ray Pollock
Image
I think my characters - well, at least a few of them - are hoping or searching for some kind of contact with god.
Donald Ray Pollock
Image
I guess music is the one universal art form that most people can be moved by, regardless of where they come from, and for many it might be the closest they get to god, but I think taking a trip out into the country, away from the light pollution, and looking at a clear night sky is what does it best for me.
Donald Ray Pollock
Image
I'm always doubting my work, even when people are kind enough to say good things. I still have a hard time believing I've written some books, let alone that they've actually done pretty well.
Donald Ray Pollock
Image
A lot of people get the wrong impression, think there's something romantic or tragic about hitting bottom.
Donald Ray Pollock
Image
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.
Donald Ray Pollock
Image
J.R. Angelella is a truly gifted writer. Zombie is one of the smartest, strangest, and most beautifully crafted coming-of-age stories you will ever encounter.
Donald Ray Pollock
Image
I took a correspondence course with a guy at Ohio University. He gave me ten exercises, and one of them resulted in the story Bactine. It pleased me a lot more than anything else I'd ever done, so I kept messing around and by the time I got to Ohio State I'd written maybe eight stories.
Donald Ray Pollock
Image
Look, girls don't care how many push-ups you can do. They just want to get high and wear flowers in their hair. Maybe steal a car.
Donald Ray Pollock