“You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him sing opera.”

“You can't write ... on the strength of influence. You can only write a good story or a good novel by yourself.”

“It's odd to imagine, of course: you pass a car on a lonely rural highway; you sit beside a man in a diner and share views with him; you wait behind a customer checking into a motel, a friendly man with a winning smile and twinkling hazel eyes, who's happy to fill you in on his life's story and wants you to like him - odd to think this man is cruising around with a loaded pistol, making up his mind about which bank he'll soon rob.' - Richard Ford, Canada”

“Only sometimes you can't feel anything about a subject without hypothesizing its extinction.”

“And since that is not how it has been for a long time, you want, this time, to make it last, this glistening one moment, this cool air, this new living, so that you can preserve a feeling of it, inasmuch as when it comes again it may just be too late. You may just be too old. And in truth, of course, this may be the last time that you will ever feel this way again.”

“Cynicism makes you feel smart, I know it, even when you aren't smart.”

“If you lose all hope, you can always find it again.”