Joseph Murphy

“Everything has seemed beckoning and ahead, though I am unsure now if life has not suddenly passed me like a big rumbling semi and left me flattened here by the road.”
― Richard Ford, The Sportswriter

“It is no loss to mankind when one writer decides to call it a day. When a
tree falls in the forest, who cares but the monkeys?”
― Richard Ford, The Sportswriter

“Suddenly my heart again goes bangety-bang, bangety-bangety-bang, as if I myself were about to exit life in a hurry. And if I could, I would spring up, switch on the light, dial someone and shout right down into the hard little receiver, “It’s okay. I got away. It was goddamned close, I’ll tell ya. It didn’t get me, though. I smelled its breath, saw its red eyes in the dark, shining. A clammy hand touched mine. But I made it. I survived. Wait for me. Wait for me. Not that much is left to do.” Only there’s no one. No one here or anywhere near to say any of this to. And I’m sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry.”
― Richard Ford, Independence Day

“It’s not an unusual American story. Just as there’s no right way to plan a life and no right way to live one—only plenty of wrong ways.”
― Richard Ford, Let Me Be Frank with You