Quotes by Richard Ford

The longer they stayed on, and the better they knew each other, the better she at least could see their mistake, and the more misguided their lives became—like a long proof in mathematics in which the first calculation is wrong, following which all other calculations move you further away from how things were when they made sense.

We do not, after all, deal in truths, only potentialities. Too much truth can be worse than death, and last longer.

Our ex-wifes always harbour secrets about us that make them irresistable. Until, of course, we remember who we are and what we did and why we are not married anymore.

Dreaminess is, among other things, a state of suspended recognition, and a response to too much useless and complicated factuality. Its symptoms can be a long-term interest in the weather, or a sustained soaring feeling, or a bout of the stares that you sometimes can not even know about except in retrospect, when the time may seem fogged.

He was like my father. They each wanted me to be their audience, to hear the things they needed to express.

The saved moment is the true art of love.

In their faces--plenty of them were handsome, but ruined--Ive seen the remnants of who they almost succeeded in being but failed to be, before becoming themselves.

America beats on you so hard the whole time. You are constantly being pummeled by other peoples rights and their sense of patriotism.

“The kind of happy I was that day at the Vet when Hawk Dawson actually doffed his red C cap to me, and everyone cheered and practically convulsed into tears - you cant patent that. It was one shining moment of glory that was instantly gone. Whereas life, real life, is different and cant even be appraised as simply happy, but only in terms of Yes, Ill take it all, thanks or No, I believe I wont. Happy, as my poor father used to say, is a lot of hooey. Happy is a circus clown, a sitcom, a greeting card. Life, though, lifes about something sterner. But also something better. A lot better. Believe me.”