Richard Ford - The Sportswriter (1986)

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Maturity, as I conceived it, was recognizing what was bad or peculiar in life, admitting it has to stay that way, and going ahead with the best of things.

Richard Ford
Sometimes we do not really become adults until we suffer a good whacking loss, and our lives in a sense catch up with us and wash over us like a wave and everything goes.

Richard Ford
Married life requires shared mystery even when all the facts are known.

Richard Ford
Just exactly what that good life was — the one I expected — I cannot tell you now exactly, though I wouldn't say it has not come to pass, only that much has come in between.

Richard Ford
What was our life like? I almost don't remember now. Though I remember it, the space of time it occupied. And I remember it fondly.

Richard Ford
I know you can dream your way through an otherwise fine life, and never wake up, which is what I almost did.

Richard Ford
People surprise you, Frank, with just how fuckin stupid they are. I mean, do you actually realize how much adult conversation is spent on this fuckin business? Facts treated like they were opinions just for the simple purpose of talking about it longer? Some people might think that's interesting, bub, but I'll tell you. It's romanticizing a goddamn rock by calling it a mountain range to me. People waste a helluva lot of time they could be putting to useful purposes. This is a game. See it and forget about it.

Richard Ford
If there's another thing that sportswriting teaches you, it is that there are no transcendent themes in life. In all cases things are here and they're over, and that has to be enough.

Richard Ford
It is no loss to mankind when one writer decides to call it a day. When a tree falls in the forest, who cares but the monkeys?

Richard Ford
The world is a more engaging and less dramatic place than writers ever give it credit for being

Richard Ford
For a time after my divorce everything began to seem profoundly ironic to me. I found myself thinking of other peoples' worries as sources of amusement and private derision which I thought about at night to make myself feel better.

Richard Ford
Cynicism makes you feel smart, I know it, even when you aren't smart.

Richard Ford
Very early you come to the realization that nothing will ever take you away from yourself.

Richard Ford
If sportswriting teaches you anything, and there is much truth to it as well as plenty of lies, it is that for your life to be worth anything you must sooner or later face the possibility of terrible, searing regret. Though you must also manage to avoid it or your life will be ruined.

Richard Ford