As a child, I was an obsessive reader, as was everybody in my family all winter long with my father. I think I was only 8 when I read Edward Gibbon’s ‘The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.’ – Jim Harrison
Either you can do what others want, or you can do what you want to do. That’s an easy call. – Jim Harrison
I see more genuine sociability between the races in Mississippi than I see in Michigan. No question. – Jim Harrison
The person that was closest to me growing up was my sister, who died at 19. She was an incredibly powerful girl, deeply committed to art and literature. – Jim Harrison
I don’t trust anybody that doesn’t do good work. I don’t give them any credibility. If they can’t write, why should I believe anything they have to say? – Jim Harrison
My biggest pet peeve is when you go to a fine restaurant, and it’s like a mausoleum inside. Good food should be joyful. There should be laughter and chatter, not people sitting there like they’re in a funeral-parlor waiting room. – Jim Harrison
I asked a French critic a couple of years ago why my books did so well in France. He said it was because in my novels people both act and think. I got a kick out of that. – Jim Harrison
I’ve never been a true fan of the short story and have only published a single example of my own. – Jim Harrison
Poetry, at its best, is the language your soul would speak if you could teach your soul to speak. – Jim Harrison
I’m actually forced to write about Michigan because as a native of that state it’s the place I know best. – Jim Harrison
I enjoy about 1 out of 100 movies, it’s about the same proportion to books published that I care to read. – Jim Harrison
Fiction writers tend to err either making people more than they are or less than they are. I’d rather err on the side of the former. – Jim Harrison
Your kids inevitably want to move where they had their vacations when they were younger. – Jim Harrison
I’ve never felt influenced by Ernest Hemingway though I suppose there is something inevitable there. – Jim Harrison
After a lifetime of world travel I’ve been fascinated that those in the third world don’t have the same perception of reality that we do. – Jim Harrison
The fact is, the media never gets off the interstate unless there’s a major explosion. – Jim Harrison
Whatever I learned reading ‘Scientific American,’ nothing can finally compete with your own observations. – Jim Harrison
