Daniel Woodrell Quotes

Poverty makes you sad as well as wise.

Ghetto isn't a place. Ghetto is more in the mind and how you feel about your life.

Black, poor, without a father most of my life, one of 10 children - it was actually pretty amazing I had made it to the age of 29 without a noose around my neck.

I've been called to the slums of the streets and the ditches of the world.

Sometimes we are blessed with being able to choose the time, and the arena, and the manner of our revolution, but more usually we must do battle where we are standing.

Poverty is a divine stepmother who does for youths what their own mothers were unable to do. It introduces them to frugality, to the world and to life.

Forces beyond your control can take away everything you possess except one thing, your freedom to choose how you will respond to the situation.

... people loved to suffer, as long as the suffering made sense. Everybody suffered. The key was to choose the form of your suffering.

I think, especially in this time in the world, there is very much a choice between fear and courage, and we all have to pick the courageous route.

Even though homelessness reaches into the depths of despair, there's also a pride and beauty in it, as well.

There is little favorable to be said about poverty, but it was often an incubator of true friendship.

Without bitterest cold that penetrates to the very bone, how can plum blossoms send forth their fragrance all over the world?

The leaders that the world admires seem almost all to be people who haven't had things quite so smooth or easy in their lives.

There is nothing magnanimous in bearing misfortunes with fortitude, when the whole world is looking on.... He who, without friends to encourage or even without hope to alleviate his misfortunes, can behave with tranquility and indifference, is truly great.

I really didn't have any childhood. When you don't know where you are going to sleep for the night.. or find food.. you can't think with the mind of a child. You have to think with the mind of a man.

Contact with the world either breaks or hardens the heart.

I’m telling you, trouble is like the ocean. It covers two thirds of the world.

Niggerization is the result of oppression -- and it doesn't just apply to the black people. Old people, poor people, and students can also get niggerized.

I grew up with sentiments such as, "Do what will make you happy, troubles are God's redirections that something good will come from, and that material things are to make the world a better place" and the latter came from my father because his father died of tuberculosis when he was twelve. They had no insurance, six kids and a hell of a time surviving.

There are really only two types of people. Either you're running scared or you're running free. I choose to run free, and you can, too, no matter what your circumstances in life.

In man's struggle against the world, bet on the world.

Homeless people's dogs are more knowledgeable than dogs in Beverly Hills. Why? Because they explore, they move forward, they go through the ups and downs in life. A dog in a wealthy environment, there is no downs except what he lives.

Poverty is the deprivation of opportunity.

We can spend our days bemoaning our losses, or we can grow from them. Ultimately the choice is ours. We can be victims of circumstance or masters of our own fate, but make no mistake, we cannot be both. The Walk - Epilogue Page 288

Yes, there are troubles in the world. There's war and hatred, there's sickness and difficulty. And there is also an undying spirit, an inviolable consciousness that is born in each of us. It is who we are, and it's everything and it's nothing.