Explore Quotes by Daniel Woodrell

When I started to be a writer, I was not going to run the risk of boring you.

There's an overlap between social-realist fiction and crime fiction - a sweet spot there.

I liked my fellow Marines. I didn't like pointless orders.

Texas humor and Southern humor are pretty similar.

I was thinking of my father's family. I can find their graves, but not that much about them. They didn't do anything notable enough to be in the records of newspapers.

I think my grandmother Woodrell was most responsible for my becoming a writer. She wasn't quite literate, but was very proud that she attended school as far as the third grade. She worked as a maid, housekeeper and cook.

This happens to me all the time: I think I'm working on one thing, but this other thing, whether I want it to or not, keeps coming through.

I realized there might be monetary or financial reasons to jump in and write a 'Winter's Bone Retriumphs' or something, and nobody would object to me doing that in publishing. But it would be a waste of my time, and they always take a little longer than you thought they would take.

If I weren't so lazy, I would have 14 books, not eight.

I always gravitate towards anything from Ireland. With Irish lit, I love the use of language, but also in many instances, the Irish writers are writing about people and circumstances that I can relate to.

It's called 'The Outlaw Album,' not 'The Ozarks Album.' These are stories that delve into different kinds of outlawry, from criminal acts to interior, or psychological, outlawry. The book is not meant to be a tapestry of the Ozarks.

I can't say that dropping out of school at 16 to join the Marines was my best idea. On the other hand, maybe it was. Who knows?

When poetry is on the money, 12 words can slay you. I admire that greatly.

I'd just lie around all day. It's the chemo, the poison they pump into you. Sometimes I'd be walking across the room and think, 'There it is; I got to rest.' And I had to, right then.

I'm always writing about character first. Plot, such as it is, comes from the characters.

I was born in West Plains, and we lived here till I was one. Then my dad needed to get a job, so we moved to the St. Louis area. I lived in St. Charles, on the Missouri River, till I was 15.

I am well aware that the writers of New York, London, and Toronto are more readily noticed, though the shadowy and potent Ozarks Literary Cabal does what it can for me, then nightly joins me for dinner and calls me 'honey.'

But I've been at writing long enough now to know that every three or four books I have to start a new direction.

I felt like a number of things in me as a writer just clicked.

I always loved the verve and vivacity of pulp and I kind of merged it with my own interest in family stories.

For a long time, I didn't think I wanted to live in the Ozarks or write about the region. It seemed to be a sure recipe for obscurity, and to be obscure was not my conscious ambition.