Home
Authors
Tags
App
Get QuoteDark Inspirational Quotes App
" When I look back over my novels what I find is that when I think I'm finished with a theme, I'm generally not. And usually themes will recur from novel to novel in odd, new guises. "
Richard Russo
Look
Back
Find
Related Quotes:
" 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
End
Worry
People
" If there's an enduring theme in my work, it's probably the effects of class on American life. "
Richard Russo
Theme
American
Class
" Ultimately, your theme will find you. You don't have to go looking for it. "
Richard Russo
Theme
Looking
Go
" What comes easiest for me is dialogue. Sometimes when my characters are speaking to me, I have to slow them down so that I'm not simply taking dictation. "
Richard Russo
Sometimes
Slow
Me
" I 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. "
Richard Russo
Think
Write
Comedy
" I read pretty voraciously. If it's good, I don't care what it is. "
Richard Russo
Good
Pretty
Read
" About 15 years ago I went though a period of a year or so when I just couldn't find anything good. My wife noticed I was having trouble reading menus. I bought some cheap reading glasses in a drug store. I got home and suddenly all these books that weren't good were good. "
Richard Russo
Wife
Good
Find
" My books are elegiac in the sense that they're odes to a nation that even I sometimes think may not exist anymore except in my memory and my imagination. "
Richard Russo
Memory
Think
Imagination
" 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
Tired
Independence
Reading
" Cary Grant never won an Oscar, primarily, I suspect, because he made everything look so effortless. Why reward someone for having fun, for being charming? "
Richard Russo
Someone
Having Fun
Look
" Usually by the time I finish a book tour I've just about had it with the book. "
Richard Russo
Finish
Book
About
" It'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. "
Richard Russo
Secret
Books
I Can
" I get and read an enormous number of first novels. "
Richard Russo
Number
Read
Get
" A short story is something that I think can be intuited and envisioned and held in your mind almost at once. "
Richard Russo
Almost
Mind
Short
" 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
Trying
Think
" People often ask me how I make things funny. I don't make things funny. "
Richard Russo
People
Funny
Ask
" 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
People
Think
Nature
" If you work at comedy too laboriously, you can kill what's funny in the joke. "
Richard Russo
Joke
Comedy
Funny
" What does it feel like to be a parent? What does it feel like to be a child? And that's what stories do. They bring you there. They offer a dramatic explanation, which is always different from an expository explanation. "
Richard Russo
You
Parent
Feel
" I don't think America has ever had a center the way London is the center of England or Dublin is the center of Ireland. "
Richard Russo
Think
Way
Ireland
" 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
Think
Writing
World
" The deepest failures any fiction writer is likely to have are failures of not quite comprehending the truth of the story that he or she is telling. "
Richard Russo
He
Truth
Writer
" 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
Long
Caring
Writing
" You use simple brushstrokes in a screenplay for things over which you would take much greater pains in a novel. "
Richard Russo
Things
Much
Over
" By 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 sitting in front of television sets. "
Richard Russo
People
You
America
" People in small towns, much more than in cities, share a destiny. "
Richard Russo
Destiny
Small
People
" 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
People
Reputation
Famous
" America has always been a nation of small places, and as we lose them, we're losing part of ourselves. "
Richard Russo
Losing
Lose
America
" I can be glib and truthful all at once. "
Richard Russo
I Can
Truthful
Once
" 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
Good
Health
Think