The Pulitzer prize winner on the freedom that comes with age, how he reinvented his writing life and overcoming childhood dyslexia

Richard Ford, 76, is a novelist whose particular feat has been to translate failure into literary success: he writes about human beings and their disappointments with unfailing insight and, while he never mocks his characters, is keenly aware of the absurdity involved in being alive. His best-known novels are about Frank Bascombe, sportswriter turned real estate agent. His novel Independence Day won the Pulitzer prize in 1996. He lives in Maine, teaches English at Columbia and his new collection of short stories, Sorry for Your Trouble, is exemplary in its nuanced understanding of the relationships between men and women.

Your stories explore choice and the rogue ways life behaves. Do people have a choice about who they fall in love with? And what part does luck play?
I think about both these questions. I was the luckiest man in the world when I met Kristina back in 1964 – I’ve been married to the same girl for 52 years. Yet throughout that long period, you choose all over again. I used to tell Kristina, “I choose to be married to you every day.”

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