Karen Russell

“As a kid I heard the word malignancy as "Malig-Nancy" like an evil woman's name, no matter how many times Kiwi and…

— Karen Russell

“Once Mom and Ossie and I spent an afternoon alone together in her hospital room. We were watching the small TV above…

— Karen Russell

People really get myopic as they get older. We're not a culture that encourages dreaming or distraction. We're not ever good at…

— Karen Russell

It is a special kind of homelessness to be evicted from your dreams.

— Karen Russell

“She used to suffer these intense bouts of homesickness in her own bedroom. When she was very small, she would wake up…

— Karen Russell

“At ten, I couldn't articulate much but I got the message: to be a true historian, you had to mourn amply and…

— Karen Russell

“THE ALLIGATOR IS AN ANACHRONISM THAT CAN EAT YOU!”

— Karen Russell

“ Forever , just the word fills Beverly with an unaccountable, schoolmarmish sort of rage. Forever, that's got to be bad math,…

— Karen Russell

“I swim with all my strength. No superhuman surge, or pony heroics; it's just me at my most desperate.”

— Karen Russell

So much of the way books get classified has to do with marketing decisions. I think it's more useful to think of…

— Karen Russell

The beginning of the end can feel a lot like the middle when you are living in it.

— Karen Russell

“I often think, that she foresaw only the end times, never hot dogs.”

— Karen Russell

“I had an ear for languages, and I could read before I could adequately wash myself. I probably could have vied with…

— Karen Russell

“Etiquette was so confounding in this country. Still, looking at Mirabella-her fists balled together like small, white porcupines, her brows knitted in…

— Karen Russell

It's funny, for a long time I would go watermelon-red and deny that I was a magical realist. It felt imprecise to…

— Karen Russell

“Even at this altitude, the substitute pilot's bathed in sweat, sweat running down his chin and neck. Fear must be the fountain…

— Karen Russell

“Our mother performed in starlight.”

— Karen Russell

“Well, you look weird. New pajamas? Did somebody exhume you last night?" -- Kiwi, Swamplandia!”

— Karen Russell

My older sister has entire kingdoms inside of her, and some of them are only accessible at certain seasons, in certain kinds…

— Karen Russell

If you're gonna do something weird, just have one thing be weird.

— Karen Russell

"I'm not going anywhere," she told me that night. But until we are old ladies-a cypress age, a Sawtooth age-I will continue…

— Karen Russell

“On her last visit, the girl stole one of his family photographs right out of the frame. He thinks this means she…

— Karen Russell

I have friends who are capable of writing a very rough draft and then going back and embroidering - they're sort of…

— Karen Russell

“We stare at each other pop-eyed over the burlap sack and laugh as if we're afraid to stop. Somebody needs to say…

— Karen Russell

“Raffy has this magical, abracadabrical ability to transform all his "ifs" into "whens".”

— Karen Russell