Ben Fountain

“The singing triggers a soft detonation at his core, molten parts of him are flying everywhere and his ears ring to the…

— Ben Fountain

“Even harder was describing his sense that Shroom’s death might have ruined him for anything else, because when he died? when I…

— Ben Fountain

“Without ever exactly putting his mind to it, he's come to believe that loss is standard trajectory. Something new appears in the…

— Ben Fountain

“But I am scared. Everybody's scared." "You know what I mean, like scared scared. Like coward scared, like if you never went…

— Ben Fountain

“God knows the war sucks, but he sees no great appeal in these tepid peacetime lives.”

— Ben Fountain

“What he'd like to say is that he's lived it, if not the entire breadth and depth of the Christian faith then…

— Ben Fountain

By the end of the first decade of writing, I considered myself a confirmed failure in the eyes of the world.

— Ben Fountain

I started publishing stories in small magazines early on, but after seven or eight or nine years you feel like you need…

— Ben Fountain

“I think sometimes nothing is better than something. I mean, I’d rather have nothing than let this guy use me like his…

— Ben Fountain

“No it was my choice. It's what I wanted to do. And I knew they'd probably send me to Iraq. It's not…

— Ben Fountain

It's amazing what happens when you stick yourself in a place and let things take their more or less natural course.

— Ben Fountain

“As if sorrow is the true reality? Without ever putting his mind to it, he's come to believe that loss is the…

— Ben Fountain

If you want to see a bunch of happy Americans, go out to opening day at any baseball stadium in the land.

— Ben Fountain

There was no such thing as perfection in this world, only moments of such extreme transparency that you forgot yourself, a holy…

— Ben Fountain

“He decides he wants both more and less. He’d like to hang out with Beyonce in a nice way, get to know…

— Ben Fountain

Late bloomer' is another way of saying 'slow learner.

— Ben Fountain

I realized I was never going to have any peace with myself unless I made an honest stab at trying to write.

— Ben Fountain

Democracy's premise rests on the notion that the collective wisdom of the majority will prove right more often than it's wrong; that…

— Ben Fountain

“What to call it - the spark of God? Survival instinct? The souped-up computer of an apex brain evolved from eons in…

— Ben Fountain

“No matter their age or station in life, Billy can't help but regard his fellow Americans as children. They are bold and…

— Ben Fountain

“everybody around here’s such a major conservative till they get sick, get screwed over by their insurance company, their job goes over…

— Ben Fountain

“But then self-doubt has always been there for Billy, self-doubt and its cousin the berating voice, these faithful companions have always been…

— Ben Fountain

I quit law in 1988 to start writing, and it took me 17 years from that point to get a book contract.…

— Ben Fountain

I'm ashamed and embarrassed to say that I've read very little of David Foster Wallace's work. It's a huge gap in my…

— Ben Fountain

“...he wonders by what process virtually any discussion about the war seems to profane these ultimate matters of life and death. As…

— Ben Fountain