56 Quotes by Donald Ray Pollock

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.

I had this bad habit of not writing out a first draft and going back. For me it was the first sentence, then the second sentence, and I might be several weeks on the first page instead of writing a draft and trying to figure it out from there.

I was always a big reader, even when everything was bad and miserable.

I sort of like writing about weird characters, I guess.

When I turned fifty, I decided to quit the mill and go to graduate school.

I'm beginning to believe that anything I do to extend my life is just going to be outweighed by the agony of living it.

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.

When I was growing up, I just wanted to be somewhere else. I didn't like living in Knockemstiff, and I figured when I got older, I'd move off to some big city.

When I was growing up, I always wanted to be somebody else and live somewhere else. I've always felt a little uncomfortable around people.