Famous quotes by Richard Price:
"You can point out to people how to make what they do better, but you can't teach somebody how to be a great writer, just like you can't teach somebody how to be a fast runner. You can work on their technique, but either they're fast or they're not; either they can write or they can't."
"There's a dangerous thrill - a rush - in goodness. If you don't keep your wits about you, if you don't have a very sober take on what you're doing and who you're doing it too, you can inadvertently set little fires. The very people you are helping can wind up, emotionally, in worse shape than they were before."
"If I can tell you the story from beginning to end in five minutes, I'm ready to start writing. Then it's a constant spreading out of that five minutes."
"If you're writing a book that takes place in New York in the moment, you can't not write about 9-11; you can't not integrate it. My main character's view is the Statue of Liberty and the Trade Center. It doesn't have to take over, but it has to be acknowledged."
"This book falls under the category of "stuff I know," as opposed to "stuff I need to learn"."
"I write because I write - as anyone in the arts does. You're a painter because you feel you have no choice but to paint. You're a writer because this is what you do."
"I can never read this book, just like I can never see a movie that I wrote a screenplay for. I can read it and see it physically, but I can't accurately judge it. I'm too close to it. If I read it ten times I'll have ten different reactions."
"At some point I started wondering what it means to teach for free in an inner-city school - what's in it for me?"
"I have offices all over the place and I avoid work everywhere. I don't like to write - I like to be finished."
"I don't need all that much - I just need to know who my characters are and what kind of jam they're going to get into, and I'll write myself out of their jam."
"I think the definition of an artist is not necessarily tied into excellence or talent; an artist is somebody who, if you took away their freedom to make art, would lose their mind."