Richard Russo Quotes - Page 2

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Books Character Feelings Heart Understanding Writing

I just have this feeling that if it weren't for the Gloversville Free Library that I probably would not be a writer.

Richard Russo

Feelings, Library, Ifs

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He'd discovered that his memories of that summer were like bad movie montages - young lovers tossing a Frisbee in the park, sharing a melting ice-cream cone, bicycling along the river, laughing, talking, kissing, a sappy score drowning out the dialogue because the screenwriter had no idea what these two people might say to each other.

Richard Russo

Summer, Memories, Kissing

FaceBook post by Richard Russo from Jul 31, 2016

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Worse, I have to admit to feeling the jealousy of one crab for another that has managed to climb out of the barrel.

Richard Russo

Feelings, Barrels, Crabs

FaceBook post by Richard Russo from Sep 02, 2012

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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

Writing, Thinking, Risk

"Failbetter" Interview, www.failbetter.com.

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To expect reason is where the fallacy lies.

Richard Russo

Lying, Reason, Fallacy

Richard Russo (2017). “Straight Man”, p.92, Atlantic Books

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I think a lot of what is going on with kids who get pushed too far and attempt either murder or suicide is that they are trying to deal with their own non-existence for the people who are supposed to care most for them.

Richard Russo

Suicide, Kids, Thinking

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America has always been a nation of small places, and as we lose them, we're losing part of ourselves.

Richard Russo

America, Losing, Small Places

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Knowing and knowing what to do about it were two different things.

Richard Russo

Knowing, Two, Different

Richard Russo (2017). “Mohawk”, p.138, Atlantic Books

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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

Skills, Information, Grids

Richard Russo (2017). “Risk Pool”, p.154, Atlantic Books

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The other possibility was that there was no right thing to say, that the choice wasn't between right and wrong but between wrong, more wrong, and as wrong as you can get.

Richard Russo

Choices, Possibility, Right Thing To Say

Richard Russo (2017). “Empire Falls”, p.137, Atlantic Books

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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

Thinking, Stories, World

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I want that which is hilarious and that which is heartbreaking to occupy the same territory in the book because I think they very often occupy the same territory in life, much as we try to separate them.

Richard Russo

Book, Thinking, Trying

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... Baggott enjoys living on the knife edge between hilarity and heartbreak and that makes her a writer after my own heart.

Richard Russo

Heart, Knives, Hilarity

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If you work at comedy too laboriously, you can kill what's funny in the joke.

Richard Russo

Comedy, Jokes, Ifs

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Don'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 cheated, even when we know we haven't been?

Richard Russo

Feelings, Different, Hints

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You just kind of have faith. If that sounds kind of mystical, it's because I really don't know how it works, but I trust that it does. I try to write the way I read, in order to find out what happens next.

Richard Russo

Faith, Writing, Order

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As I drift back into sleep, I can't help thinking that it's a wonderful thing to be right about the world. To weigh the evidence, always incomplete, and correctly intuit the whole, to see the world in a grain of sand, to recognize its beauty, its simplicity, its truth. It's as close as we get to God in this life, and reside in the glow of such brief flashes of understanding, fully awake, sometimes for two or three seconds, at peace with our existence. And then back to sleep we go.

Richard Russo

Sleep, Thinking, Two

FaceBook post by Richard Russo from Dec 28, 2010

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Not everyone writes well from a child's point of view.

Richard Russo

Children, Writing, Views

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It's possible to overlook character flaws of in-laws for the simple reason that you feel neither responsible for them nor genetically implicated.

Richard Russo

Character, Simple, Law

Richard Russo (2017). “Straight Man”, p.254, Atlantic Books

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I'll tell you one thing, though. It's a terrible thing to be a disappointment to a good woman.

Richard Russo

Disappointment, Good Woman, Terrible

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People who imagine themselves to be self-made seldom enjoy examining the process of manufacture in detail.

Richard Russo

Self, People, Details

Richard Russo (2017). “Empire Falls”, p.204, Atlantic Books

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...aware, as always, that the truth isn't much of substitute for a good answer.

Richard Russo

Answers, Substitutes

Richard Russo (2017). “Empire Falls”, p.95, Atlantic Books

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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

Errors, Foundation, Stories

Richard Russo (2010). “That Old Cape Magic”, p.85, Random House

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You can be interested in a Jane Smiley novel whether or not anyone says a word. She enters into her characters thoughts with great understanding and depth.

Richard Russo

Character, Understanding, Depth

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I think the darker aspect of my fiction-or anybody's fiction-is by its very nature somehow easier to talk about.

Richard Russo

Thinking, Fiction, Easier

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Born: July 15, 1949
Occupation: Novelist
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