Obsessions

It seems like I go through obsessive stages with authors (George Saunders anyone?). In my 20's I read everything of Vonnegut's I could get my hands on. I did the same with Don DeLillo in my 30's and continue to do so in my 40's. Along the way I got obsessed with Raymond Carver and John Gardner. Lately, it has been Richard Ford. Rock Springs stands as the single biggest influence for my short stories. I also listen to interviews on youtube and anytime Mr. Ford is in print.
He was in the last Granta giving what I thought was one of his testier interviews.
An excerpt:

Richard Ford: 'Stories are created. It isn't as if they're "out there' waiting in some Platonic hyper-space like unread emails. They aren't. Writers make stories up. It might be that when stories turn out to be good they then achieve a quality of inevitability, of there seeming to have been a previously existing and important space that they perfectly fill. But that isn't what's true. I'm sure of it. A story makes its own space and then fills it. Writers don't "find" stories-although some writers might say so. This to me just means they have a vocabulary that's inadequate at depicting what they actually do. They're like Hemingway-always fleeing complexity as if it were a barn fire.'

Writers make stories up. I love the honesty of that line. And the Hemingway line is perfect. Someday, I hope to meet this guy (Ford, not Hemingway, that might prove difficult).

Ford interview at Granta