“She looked like a woman who had spent her whole life waiting in line.” — Richard Russo Copy Share Image
“Life may be a grand folly, as you say, but it is harder to appriciate the joke when you're always the butt… — Richard Russo Copy Share Image
And there comes a time in your life when you realize that if you don't take the opportunity to be happy, you… — Richard Russo Copy Share Image
“Miss Beryl: Doesn't it bother you that you haven't done more with the life God gave you? Sully: Not often. Now and… — Richard Russo Copy Share Image
If there's an enduring theme in my work, it's probably the effects of class on American life. — Richard Russo Copy Share Image
“she’d come to believe life was like that: you could enjoy almost anything if you gave it enough time.” — Richard Russo Copy Share Image
“Late middle age, he was coming to understand, was a time of life when everything was predictable and yet somehow you failed… — Richard Russo Copy Share Image
“That man truly loathes you," Herbert says when he's sure Rourke isn't coming back. "I don't think so," I smile. "I just… — Richard Russo Copy Share Image
“An imperfect human heart, perfectly shattered, was her conclusion. A condition so common as to be virtually universal, rendering issues of right… — Richard Russo Copy Share Image
“The problem with the contemplative life was that there was no end to contemplation, no fixed time limit after which thought had… — Richard Russo Copy Share Image
“I'm about to fuck up, he thought clearly, and his next thought was, but I don't have to. This was followed closely… — Richard Russo Copy Share Image
I want that which is hilarious and that which is heartbreaking to occupy the same territory in the book because I think… — Richard Russo Copy Share Image
“A silly lie. A lie so small and to so little purpose that it suggested to Miles a way of life, a… — Richard Russo Copy Share Image
“It was from my mother that I learned reading was not a duty but a reward, and from her that I intuited… — Richard Russo Copy Share Image
“Just because things happen slow doesn't mean you'll be ready for them. If they happened fast, you'd be alert for all kinds… — Richard Russo Copy Share Image
The line of gray along the horizon is brighter now, and with the coming light I feel a certainty: that there is,… — Richard Russo Copy Share Image
“I don't tell you this story today in order to encourage all of you in the class of '04 to find careers… — Richard Russo Copy Share Image
“The problem with the contemplative life was that there was no end to contemplation, no fixed time limit after which thought had to be… — Richard Russo Copy Share
“That, very simply, was what adulthood must be all about—acquiring the skill to bury things more deeply. Out of sight and, whenever possible, out… — Richard Russo Copy Share
“Miles couldn't help admiring women for their ability to dismiss the evidence of their senses. If that's what explained it. If it wasn't simply… — Richard Russo Copy Share
That afternoon I came to understand that one of the deepest purposes of intellectual sophistication is to provide distance between us and our most… — Richard Russo Copy Share
“Lucy, who apparently had no idea his girlfriend's father held him in such low regard, agreed with Noonan that he was pushing the envelope,… — Richard Russo Copy Share
Movies have to handle time very efficiently. They're about stringing scenes together in the present. Novels aren't necessarily about that. — Richard Russo Copy Share
When 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. — Richard Russo Copy Share
“There was something about spending money they didn't really have that made him optimistic about more coming in.” — Richard Russo Copy Share
Some authors have a very hard time understanding that in order to be faithful to the spirit of the book, it's almost always impossible… — Richard Russo Copy Share
HBO is really famous for hiring good people and staying out of their way until they ask for help, or need it. And that… — Richard Russo Copy Share
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… — Richard Russo Copy Share
Where was the middle ground between a sense of adventure and just plain sense? — Richard Russo Copy Share
“... Mr. Purty has cheered me up. The task he has chosen for himself, of wooing my mother with a bright red pickup truck,… — Richard Russo Copy Share
“So what? Few men, Miles reflected, lived so comfortably within the confines of a two.word personal philosophy.” — Richard Russo Copy Share
