Johnny Rich

“Silent is an anagram of listen.”

“Those who perpetrate stories must act cruelly.”

“He did it because he could not help himself, which explains everything and nothing”

“Wouldn’t a no one do as well as a someone about whom nothing can be said?”

“The bacteria of resentment bred: distance turned to distrust; distrust turned to bitterness; bitterness to hate, which is, after all, a kind of grievous love”

“Is it murder to kill a man if the man never existed? To the man it is.”

“To be motivated to write a novel, I need to be unable not to write.”

“The future is certain. It is just not known.”

“Is the writer cruel that makes his characters suffer only to bring them to triumph or tragedy in the end?”

“Is cruelty still cruel if it is necessary? Is cruelty still cruel if it is part of a lie?”

“This pain is comfort. It is the solace of physicality, like a touch.”

“You need to bridge the gap between reality and freedom. Drugs are the bridge.”

“All life is preoccupied with death. Death is the only certain future. Yet in the face of reason, everyone holds out hope for the highly improbable.”

“Doing nothing was as honourable as any available course of action. Think of Hamlet, think of Job, think of Jesus before Pilate.”

“Suffering is inevitable. It is part of the human condition. It is written in the human script.”

“I stare out at the real world projected on the windows”

“Like all fiction, my lies are just my efforts to be truer than the truth.”

“An unpublished writer should doubt themselves. They should constantly wonder whether what they’re creating has merit. And then, having doubted, they should take up their pen and see if they can’t make it better.”

“Good writing is more about graft and craft than inspiration and aspiration.”

“In the chain of events, it is arbitrary to be sentimental about the passing of any one link.”