William Kennedy
William Kennedy
Writer and journalist whose novel, Ironweed, won the 1984 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. His other well-known works include The Ink Truck (1969), Legs (1975), Billy Phelan's Greatest Game (1978), and Roscoe (2002).
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth16 January 1928
CityAlbany, NY
CountryUnited States of America
moving yesterday wells
We are only possible as what happened to us yesterday. We all change as well move
america bite black call cities dogs drive meanness men paid people pickup price seen trucks walking white
People don't know what price people paid to make America human. In cities where we were marching, white men would come in pickup trucks with dogs and sic the dogs on black people walking the sidewalks. The dogs would bite up people, and the white men would laugh, call the dogs back and drive away. You've never seen such meanness like the meanness we went through.
ability comic fused glorious grip heard imagination insisted intellect language literary serious talked
When I first talked about writing with Saul he insisted on the ability to change, to get a serious grip on what was real in your life, ... He was the 20th century's literary wizard, who fused the intellect and the imagination in glorious and comic language that we'd never heard before.
bad banks close drag forced four loaded merge
Four years ago, many banks were insolvent or close to it because they were loaded down with a lot of bad loans, ... This was a drag on the economy, but many banks have been forced to merge or close.
concern effect lasting mastery notes students taking true
My concern is students not taking notes will have a lasting effect on their true mastery of the material.
guilt lose stood
My guilt is all I have left. If I lose it, I have stood for nothing, done nothing, been nothing.
character possess seems team year
This year the team seems to possess a lot more character and more depth.
decision enter parties room visual
The decision was made to enter the room after visual confirmation where all the parties were,
best fighter fighting stop student
He was ready. He was determined. He was the best student I ever had. He was such a learner. And he was a fighter like I was then, and like I am now. I will never stop fighting for what's right.
paris issues greek
Aspiring writers should read the entire canon of literature that precedes them, back to the Greeks, up to the current issue of The Paris Review.
empty-rooms self voice
Without a sense of place the work is often reduced to a cry of voices in empty rooms, a literature of the self, at its best poetic music; at its worst a thin gruel of the ego.
sin discouraging wells
Well-lit streets discourage sin, but don't overdo it.
memories soul deeds
Roscoe was spiritually illegal, a bootlegger of the soul, a mythic creature made of words and wit and wild deeds and boundless memory.
interesting stories crafts
Everyone is interesting except the narrator in a first-person story.