Daniel Woodrell
Daniel Woodrell
Daniel Woodrellis an American writer of fiction. He has written eight novels, most of them set in the Missouri Ozarks. Woodrell coined the phrase "country noir" to describe his 1996 novel Give Us a Kiss. Reviewers have frequently since used the term to categorize his writing...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth4 March 1953
CountryUnited States of America
full romantic
I guess it's ridiculously romantic, but I wanted to be a full tilt, sink-or-swim writer.
attended becoming far quite school third worked
I think my grandmother Woodrell was most responsible for my becoming a writer. She wasn't quite literate, but was very proud that she attended school as far as the third grade. She worked as a maid, housekeeper and cook.
bone financial jump longer might monetary nobody object realized reasons time waste
I realized there might be monetary or financial reasons to jump in and write a 'Winter's Bone Retriumphs' or something, and nobody would object to me doing that in publishing. But it would be a waste of my time, and they always take a little longer than you thought they would take.
fiction good muscle narrative principle punch root underlying
I just really like the verve and muscle of good crime fiction, the narrative punch of it. The underlying principle of good crime fiction is an insistence on a kind of root democracy. I've always responded to that notion.
due guess longer rounded writers
I remember all the writers I started with who I was embarrassed to be around - they were so much better than me. A lot of them are no longer writing. I guess they were better rounded and had other options. Due to social discomfort, I only had the one road.
If I weren't so lazy, I would have 14 books, not eight.
attention best books brings course developing gotten mass surviving terms
I'm surviving and developing as a writer. I don't know what brings you to mass attention in terms of sales. But I've gotten more and more comfortable with it. Of course if that changes, I'll be comfortable with that. All I can do is write the best books I can.
allow benefits chances change health job pension plan turns
If you don't allow yourself to change from book to book - take chances - it turns into a dullish job with no health benefits or pension plan and only intermittent paychecks.
came connection places realized taste
I came back when I'd had a taste of other places and realized that I would never feel the same sense of connection to any place other than the Ozarks.
aware calls literary potent readily though toronto writers
I am well aware that the writers of New York, London, and Toronto are more readily noticed, though the shadowy and potent Ozarks Literary Cabal does what it can for me, then nightly joins me for dinner and calls me 'honey.'
learned life object polite poor
I learned my values. It's better to be poor than to be beholden. Wealth is not the object of life. You should be polite as long as possible, and when you can't be polite anymore, don't run.
agent bill chasing collectors finally sold town
I had bill collectors chasing me. We were skipping from town to town, not leaving forwarding addresses. The agent couldn't find me when he sold my book. He finally found me.
choice dirt element lived might people quite religious until
I know people who have, until recently, lived with dirt floors. There are people who live way back off the grid, without electricity. Not a whole lot, but quite a few. That's a choice for a lot of them. There might be a religious element in their isolation, at least with some of them.
agent collection hear short stories thinking
You want to hear an agent scream, say, 'I'm thinking about doing a collection of short stories set in the Ozarks.'