Richard RussoBookstores, like libraries, are the physical manifestation of the wide world's longest, most thrilling conversation. ✨ FaceBook post byRichard Russo from Feb 15, 2013375Reading
Richard RussoThat afternoon I came to understand that one of the deepest purposes of intellectual sophistication is to provide distance between us and our most disturbing personal truths and g… ▶342ReadingTruth
Richard RussoWho but an English professor would threaten to kill a duck a day and hold up a goose as an example? ✨ Richard Russo (2017). Straight Man, p.151, Atlantic Books331Reading
Richard RussoHave you ever noticed that when people use the expression 'I have to say', what follows usually needn't be said?364Humanity
Richard RussoHBO is really famous for hiring good people and staying out of their way until they ask for help, or need it. And that reputation is earned.375Humanity
Richard RussoI'll tell you one thing, though. It's a terrible thing to be a disappointment to a good woman.343Reflection
Richard RussoWhen authors who write literary fiction begin to write screenplays, everybody assumes that's the end. Here's another who's never going to write well again.376Life
Richard RussoI think the darker aspect of my fiction-or anybody's fiction-is by its very nature somehow easier to talk about.332Thought
Richard RussoPeople sometimes get in the habit of being loyal to a mistake. ✨ Richard Russo (2017). Mohawk, p.157, Atlantic Books332HumanityReadingTime
Richard RussoA couple years ago, the novelist Russell Banks told me he was reading the ancient Greek historian Herodotus. I asked why. He said, 'Because I've always wanted to and am tired of h… ▶333ReadingThought
Richard RussoIt's no secret that in my books I'm trying to make the comic and the serious rub up against each other just as closely and uncomfortably as I can.311Reading
Richard RussoCary Grant never won an Oscar, primarily, I suspect, because he made everything look so effortless. Why reward someone for having fun, for being charming? ✨ Failbetter Inter… ▶322Reflection
Richard RussoTo his surprise, she leaned over and kissed him on the forehead, a kiss so full of affection that it dispelled the awkwardness, even as it caused Miles' heart to plummet, because … ▶378LoveReading
Richard RussoI told him the truth, that I loved him and didn't regret anything about our lives together. But do we ever 'tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me … ▶301LoveTruth
Richard RussoWhy mince words? Beautiful Ruins is an absolute masterpiece. ✨ Jess Walter by Robert Birnbaum, themorningnews.org. August 6, 2012.357Life
Richard RussoTo expect reason is where the fallacy lies. ✨ Richard Russo (2017). Straight Man, p.92, Atlantic Books379Reading
Richard RussoI don't think America has ever had a center the way London is the center of England or Dublin is the center of Ireland.347Thought
Richard RussoWhen I start getting close to the end of a novel, something registers in the back of my mind for the next novel, so that I usually don't write, or take notes. And I certainly don'… ▶292ReadingSadnessThought
Richard RussoI've never written nearly as much about place as people seem to think I do. I just write about class.271HumanityThought
Richard RussoI think it would be harder for me not to write comedy because the comic view of things is the one that comes most naturally to me.337HumorThought
Richard RussoWhich is why we have spouses and children and parents and colleagues and friends, because someone has to know us better than we know ourselves. We need them to tell us. We need th… ▶348Reading
Richard RussoDon't even the best and most fortunate of lives hint at other possibilities, at a different kind of sweetness and, yes, bitterness too? Isn't this why we can't help feeling cheate… ▶272Death
Richard RussoPeople in small towns, much more than in cities, share a destiny.327Humanity
Richard RussoIf you work at comedy too laboriously, you can kill what's funny in the joke.349Humor
Richard Russo...aware, as always, that the truth isn't much of substitute for a good answer. ✨ Richard Russo (2017). Empire Falls, p.95, Atlantic Books3510ReadingTruth
Richard RussoIf my career continues along its current arc, people will probably look at me and see a writer who is obsessed with the relationship between rich and poor and with how the rich so… ▶262Humanity
Richard RussoUltimately, your theme will find you. You don't have to go looking for it. ✨ Richard Russo on Painting a Canvas With His Novels. HBO Interview, www.hbo.com.3310ReadingSadness
Richard RussoBy ignoring a lot of American culture you can write more interesting stories. Unfortunately, if you were writing about America as it is, you'd be writing about a lot of people sit… ▶263Humanity
Richard RussoI read pretty voraciously. If it's good, I don't care what it is.318Reading
Richard RussoAmerica has always been a nation of small places, and as we lose them, we're losing part of ourselves.319Life
