37 Quotes by Ron Carlson

I don't write for theme, but if you work closely on some guy fixing a sandwich or a window or a table or trying to visit an old teacher or walking down the street on which he was a boy, a theme, a human hope, will emerge.

I don't live in books, but, boy, have books amplified my life.

I believe in teaching as a real job. I don't think it's a substitute for anything else. It's been shown to me that teachers can help, and the writing today is just as good as it was when I started out. Technology hasn't changed that.

The men and women, the weapons, the deerhunt all make a huge and fragile danger in John Bolger's novel The Hunters. There is care and harm in this book and all written with felicitous and steady grace.

I always write about my own experiences, whether I've had them or not.

The literary story is a story that deals with the complicated human heart with an honest tolerance for the ambiguity in which we live.

Idolatry is not simply worshiping a stone image; idolatry is any concept of God that reduces Him to less than who He really is.

The big secret is the ability to stay in the room.

The writer is the person who stays in the room.