„Being a slow reader admitted me to books at a very basic level – word by word. That doesn't seem like bad preparation to me, if writers are people who essentially live in sentences.“ Zitat nach: Don Lee: About Richard Ford: A Profile. In: Ploughshares, Issue 70, Fall 1996.
„I always wanted my books to exist outside the limits of so-called Southern writing. […] But then the people who wrote about it all said it was another Southern novel, and I just said, Okay, that's it. No more Southern writing for me.“ Zitat nach: Don Lee: About Richard Ford: A Profile. In: Ploughshares, Issue 70, Fall 1996.
„I realized there was probably a wide gulf between what I could do and what would succeed with readers. I felt that I'd had a chance to write two novels, and neither of them had really created much stir, so maybe I should find real employment, and earn my keep.“ Zitat nach: Don Lee: About Richard Ford: A Profile. In: Ploughshares, Issue 70, Fall 1996.
„I do like a quiet life when I'm trying to write“, „My biggest challenge is to stay in the book as long as I can, since I believe that I can make things better if I just concentrate and stay close. Young writers – and I was one – are often bothered by the worry of being able to finish a book. […] I'm challenged nowadays, though, by a wish to stay in without finishing. Eventually I'll finish, or else there's no book there.“ Zitate nach: Don Lee: About Richard Ford: A Profile. In: Ploughshares, Issue 70, Fall 1996.