Ben Fountain quotes

I think I was lucky to come of age in a place and time - the American South in the 1960s and '70s - when the machine hadn't completely taken over life. The natural world was still the world, and machines - TV, telephone, cars - were still more or less ancillary, and computers were unheard of in everyday life. (Ben Fountain)
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. View quote
Ben Fountain
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. View quote
Ben Fountain
Late bloomer' is another way of saying 'slow learner. View quote
Ben Fountain
Somewhere along the way America became a giant mall with a country attached. View quote
Ben Fountain
I took two fiction-writing courses in college and majored in literature. I felt that I had a knack though I wouldn't go so far as to call it a talent. But it scared me. I felt it was a childish thing wanting to write and that I would forget about it eventually. View quote
Ben Fountain
I'm ashamed and embarrassed to say that I've read very little of David Foster Wallace's work. It's a huge gap in my education, one of many. View quote
Ben Fountain
If you could figure out how to live with family then you'd gone a long way toward finding your peace. View quote
Ben Fountain
Democracy's premise rests on the notion that the collective wisdom of the majority will prove right more often than it's wrong; that given sufficient opportunity in the pursuit of happiness, your population will develop its talents, its intellect, its better judgment; that over time its capacity for discernment and self-correction will be enlarged. View quote
Ben Fountain
I never listen to music when I'm writing. View quote
Ben Fountain
After Bush was elected in 2004 - please note that I didn't say 're-elected' - and I was walking around in my befuzzed state of confusion and low-grade depression, I set out more or systematically to read writers who'd grappled with that fundamental question of what America is, why it is the way it is. (Ben Fountain)