John Brown first swam into my vision in the 1960s when I was a political activist in the civil rights movement and the anti-war movement at Chapel Hill, where I went to university. — Russell Banks Copy Share Image
The best thing about writing programs is that it rationalized the apprenticeship of a writer. — Russell Banks Copy Share Image
“The received truth of history is shot through and falsified by unknown secrets carried to the grave.” — Russell Banks Copy Share Image
“Secrets and lies, they eat your insides until all you have left is a hard thin skin that covers you like the shell of… — Russell Banks Copy Share Image
But really, it was reading that led me to writing. And in particular, reading the American classics like Twain who taught me at an… — Russell Banks Copy Share Image
“Let the truth take care of itself, I decided. It's done all right on its own so far.” — Russell Banks Copy Share Image
What you believe matters, however. It’s all anyone has to act on. And since what you do is who you are, your actions define… — Russell Banks Copy Share Image
Although I still occasionally paint and draw, my life has now been shaped by my writing. — Russell Banks Copy Share Image
“my blue eyes peering into their brown eyes and seeing there some essential part of myself, some irreducible aspect of my being, which in… — Russell Banks Copy Share Image
If you dedicate your attention to discipline in your life you become smarter while you are writing than while you are hanging out with… — Russell Banks Copy Share Image
So the same cultural and political issues that divided us in 1968 are still dividing us. — Russell Banks Copy Share Image
“They were the only three people I'd chosen on my own to love, and they were gone. But still, that morning in Mobay when… — Russell Banks Copy Share Image
“Lists of books we re-read and books we can't finish tell more about us than about the relative worth of the books themselves” — Russell Banks Copy Share Image
First of all it's usually women who run these higher primate sanctuaries, rarely men. They are white. They come from privileged backgrounds. They are… — Russell Banks Copy Share Image
The United States particularly abandoned Liberia after the end of the Cold War. — Russell Banks Copy Share Image
Storytelling is an ancient and honorable act. An essential role to play in the community or tribe. It's one that I embrace wholeheartedly and… — Russell Banks Copy Share Image
