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Richard Russo Quotes | Quotes said by Richard Russo

  • Richard Russo Quote #1

    - You get more misanthropic every day.

    - I get older every day. My experience of human nature gets wider and deeper.


  • Richard Russo Quote #2

    ...he had to comfort himself with the firm conviction that most of what he objected to in Mohawk and the world at large was not the result of people reading the wrong books, but rather of not reading any at all.

  • Richard Russo Quote #3

    A 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 having my reading assigned.' I thought it was a marvelous declaration of independence.

  • Richard Russo Quote #4

    An imperfect human heart, perfectly shattered, was her conclusion. A condition so common as to be virtually universal, rendering issues of right and wrong almost incidental.

  • Richard Russo Quote #5

    At the risk of appearing disingenuous, I don't really think of myself as 'writing humor.' I'm simply reporting on the world I observe, which is frequently hilarious.

  • Richard Russo Quote #6

    Everybody looked at Sully suspiciously. A rumor that he had burned up in the blaze had been circulating, and people had quickly adjusted to the idea of profound human tragedy. They were reluctant to give it up, Sully could tell. He smiled apologetically at the crowd.

  • Richard Russo Quote #7

    HBO 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.

  • Richard Russo Quote #8

    He’d meant to forgive his brother, maybe even imagined he had. He’d also meant to learn to trust him, but instead merely fell into the habit of waiting for him to fuck up again.

  • Richard Russo Quote #9

    I don't tell you this story today in order to encourage all of you in the class of '04 to find careers in the music business, but rather to suggest what the next decade of your lives is likely to be about, and that is, trying to ensure that you don't wake up at 32 or 35 or 40 tenured to a life that happened to you when you weren't paying strict attention, either because the money was good, or it made your parents proud, or because you were unlucky enough to discover an aptitude for the very thing that bores you to tears, or for any of the other semi-valid reasons people marshal to justify allowing the true passion of their lives to leak away. If you're lucky, you may have more than one chance to get things right, but second and third chances, like second and third marriages, can be dicey propositions, and they don't come with guarantees.... The question then is this: How does a person keep from living the wrong life?

  • Richard Russo Quote #10

    I don't think there's a shortage of material in the world. Or in my head. I just pray for continued good health, because I've got other stories to tell.

  • Richard Russo Quote #11

    I have to have a character worth caring about. I tend not to start writing books about people I don't have a lot of sympathy for because I'm just going to be with them too long.

  • Richard Russo Quote #12

    I never worry about people not taking my work seriously as a result of the humor. In the end, the comic's best trick is the illusion that comedy is effortless. That people imagine what he's doing is easy is an occupational hazard.

  • Richard Russo Quote #13

    I think that if people are instructed about anything, it should be about the nature of cruelty. And about why people behave so cruelly to each other. And what kind of satisfactions they derive from it. And why there is always a cost, and a price to be paid.

  • Richard Russo Quote #14

    If 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 somehow or other always manage to betray the poor, even when they don't mean to.

  • Richard Russo Quote #15

    In matters of affection, the rules of engagement at Empire High were detailed yet unambiguous, an extension of procedures established in junior high, a set of guidelines that couldn't have been clearer if they'd been posted on the schoolhouse door. If you were a girl and your heart inclined toward a particular boy, you had one of your girlfriends make inquiries from one of that boy's friends. Such contact represented the commencement of a series of complex negotiations, the opening rounds of which were handled by friends. Boy's friend A might report to Girl's friend B that the boy in question considered her a fox, or, if he felt particularly strongly, a major fox. Those experienced in these matters knew that it was wise to proceed cautiously, since too much ardor could delay things for weeks. The girl in question might be in negotiations with other parties, and no boy wanted to be on record as considering a girl a major fox only to discover that she considered him merely cool. Friends had to be instructed carefully about how much emotional currency they could spend, since rogue emotions led to inflation, lessening the value of everyone's feelings. Once a level of affection within the comfort zone of both parties was agreed upon, the principals could then meet for the exchange of mementos - rings, jackets, photos, key chains - to seal the deal, always assuming that seconds had properly represented the lovers to begin with.

  • Richard Russo Quote #16

    Interesting, Miles thought. Like himself, Father Mark, as a child, had been reassured by the imagined proximity of God, whereas adults, perhaps because they so often were up to no good, took more comfort from His remoteness.

  • Richard Russo Quote #17

    It was a scary thought. A man could be surrounded by poetry reading and not know it.

  • Richard Russo Quote #18

    It’s not an easy time for any parent, this moment when the realization dawns that you’ve given birth to something that will never see things the way you do, despite the fact that it is your living legacy, that it bears your name.

  • Richard Russo Quote #19

    Like many men addicted to sports, Clive Sr. was also a religious man.

  • Richard Russo Quote #20

    Max would conclude, that's who I want to be. The pope. And I'll do the same thing he does. I'll keep all the goddamn money.

  • Richard Russo Quote #21

    Miles smiled. Can you keep a secret?
    Bea snorted. Did I tell you what you were in for if you married my daughter?
    No, Miles conceded.
    Well, then, she said, as if that settled the matter.

  • Richard Russo Quote #22

    Novel writing is mostly triage (this now, that later) and obstinacy. Trying something, and when that doesn't work, trying something else. Welcoming clutter Surrendering a good idea for a better one. Knowing you won't find the finish line for a year or two, or five...

  • Richard Russo Quote #23

    One of the odd things about middle age...was the strange decisions a man discovers he’s made by not really making them.

  • Richard Russo Quote #24

    Since her retirement from teaching Miss Beryl's health had in many respects greatly improved, despite her advancing years. An eighth-grade classroom was an excellent place to snag whatever was in the air in the way of illness. Also depression, which, Miss Beryl believed, in conjunction with guilt, opened the door to illness. Miss Beryl didn't know any teachers who weren't habitually guilty and depressed--guilty they hadn't accomplished more with their students, depressed that very little more was possible.

  • Richard Russo Quote #25

    Stories worked much the same way…A false note at the beginning was much more costly than one nearer the end because early errors were part of the foundation.

  • Richard Russo Quote #26

    The attraction of cynicism was that it so often put you in the right, as if being right led directly to happiness.

  • Richard Russo Quote #27

    To his surprise he...discovered that it was possible to be good at what you had little interest in, just as it had been possible to be bad at something…that you cared about a great deal.

  • Richard Russo Quote #28

    To weigh and evaluate a vast grid of information, much of it meaningless, and to arrive at sensible, if erroneous, conclusions, is a skill not to be sneezed at.

  • Richard Russo Quote #29

    What I discovered I liked best about striking out on my bicycle was that the farther I got from home, the more interesting and unusual my thoughts became.

  • Richard Russo Quote #30

    What if all everybody needed in the world was to be sure of one friend? What if you were the one, and you refused to say those simple words?

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