Quotes from Ron Carlson

The literary story is a story that deals with the complicated human heart with an honest tolerance for the ambiguity in which we live. No good guys, no bad guys, just guys: that is, people bearing up in the crucible of their days and certainly not always - if ever - capable of articulating their condition.

Key to all fiction, long or short, is to remember that the wolfman did not want the moon.

Our pasts so many times determine the value of what is happening today. Everybody is midway in their story.

My parents were farmers' kids from South Dakota. My dad was an engineer. I wanted to be responsible and major in something pragmatic.

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.

I don't live in books, but, boy, have books amplified my life.