Ron Carlson
Ron Carlson
Ron Carlsonis an American novelist and short story writer...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
CountryUnited States of America
aggregate experience life
Life is an aggregate of experience, which continually surprises us.
emotional exploring facets given human mind names nor states
If we're really writing, we are exploring the unnamed emotional facets of the human heart. Not all emotions, not all states of mind have been named. Nor are all the names we have been given always accurate.
float graduating mourning novel promise seems
My first novel was called 'Betrayed by F. Scott Fitzgerald,' about the difficulties of graduating from college, the longing and mourning you feel when all your promise seems to float away.
among appreciation calls radical suffers
No one among us suffers the radical appreciation for coffee that I do. It calls to me, but I have learned not to listen.
attention empathy fire gets hard hone men personal simple start sustaining takes talking work
Writing a book is very personal. It's a very personal relationship. A book will start with something as simple as two men talking about work. That gets the fire going. Sustaining that fire is the hard work. It takes attention and empathy to hone the characters.
book claimed expect felt fitzgerald good living million plays poetry side written
I was a good college kid, all-American and baseball-playing, living in the dorms with a million barbarians. I did not expect to be claimed by Fitzgerald hook, line, and sinker. 'This Side of Paradise' - that sweet, sophomoric pastiche of notes, scenes, poetry, and plays - I felt like he'd written the book just for me.
book kids looked novel people third whether
I was writing a third novel when my kids arrived. And I looked at that book about whether these two people would get together, and I thought, 'I don't care! I've got kids!'
Place colors everything; It is the thing by which I find my way in my fiction.
determine everybody happening
Our pasts so many times determine the value of what is happening today. Everybody is midway in their story.
dad kids major south
My parents were farmers' kids from South Dakota. My dad was an engineer. I wanted to be responsible and major in something pragmatic.
I have these habits. I'm not a crazy artist. Or am I?
closely fixing guy hope human sandwich street table teacher trying visit walking window work
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.
advance dialogue meant sure
I'm not at all sure dialogue is meant to advance the story; I know that sometimes it is the story.
amplified life
I don't live in books, but, boy, have books amplified my life.