Richard Russo

“That, very simply, was what adulthood must be all about—acquiring the skill to bury things more deeply. Out of sight and, whenever…

— Richard Russo

The deepest failures any fiction writer is likely to have are failures of not quite comprehending the truth of the story that…

— Richard Russo

“people cling to folly as if it were their most prized possession, defending it, sometimes with violence, against the possibility of wisdom.…

— Richard Russo

By ignoring a lot of American culture you can write more interesting stories. Unfortunately, if you were writing about America as it…

— Richard Russo

I think it would be harder for me not to write comedy because the comic view of things is the one that…

— Richard Russo

“He looks like he sucked the bottle dry about three in the morning and then stayed awake another hour or two to…

— Richard Russo

“Really? When? Had all his material become threadbare? After thirty years of marriage, were you supposed to come up with new stuff…

— Richard Russo

“- You get more misanthropic every day. - I get older every day. My experience of human nature gets wider and deeper.”

— Richard Russo

Were it not for Occam's Razor, which always demands simplicity, I'd be tempted to believe that human beings are more influenced by…

— Richard Russo

“I must be losing patience with my fellow humans," Miss Beryl went on. "Anymore I'm all for executing people who are mean…

— Richard Russo

One of the nice things about our marriage, at least to my way of thinking, is that my wife and I no…

— Richard Russo

If my career continues along its current arc, people will probably look at me and see a writer who is obsessed with…

— Richard Russo

Which is why we have spouses and children and parents and colleagues and friends, because someone has to know us better than…

— Richard Russo

To his surprise, she leaned over and kissed him on the forehead, a kiss so full of affection that it dispelled the…

— Richard Russo

“Alas, he himself was a man too easily encouraged, too completely seduced by hope, only to be devastated by disappointment. He’d been…

— Richard Russo

A couple years ago, the novelist Russell Banks told me he was reading the ancient Greek historian Herodotus. I asked why. He…

— Richard Russo

The other possibility was that there was no right thing to say, that the choice wasn't between right and wrong but between…

— Richard Russo

My books are elegiac in the sense that they're odes to a nation that even I sometimes think may not exist anymore…

— Richard Russo

“Max would conclude, "that's who I want to be. The pope. And I'll do the same thing he does. I'll keep all…

— Richard Russo

“Say I told you so. They're the four most satisfying words in the English language. You could rupture something trying to keep…

— Richard Russo

Whatever you're working on, take small bites. The task will not be overwhelming if you can reduce it to its smallest component.

— Richard Russo

What if all everybody needed in the world was to be sure of one friend? What if you were the one, and…

— Richard Russo

“Late middle age, he was coming to understand, was a time of life when everything was predictable and yet somehow you failed…

— Richard Russo

Some authors have a very hard time understanding that in order to be faithful to the spirit of the book, it's almost…

— Richard Russo

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

I think a lot of what is going on with kids who get pushed too far and attempt either murder or suicide…

— Richard Russo

That afternoon I came to understand that one of the deepest purposes of intellectual sophistication is to provide distance between us and…

— Richard Russo

“he always had the last word in all differences of opinion with his wife, and that—two words, actually—was, “Yes, dear.”

— Richard Russo

You can be interested in a Jane Smiley novel whether or not anyone says a word. She enters into her characters thoughts…

— Richard Russo

“...he had to comfort himself with the firm conviction that most of what he objected to in Mohawk and the world at…

— Richard Russo

“Miles couldn't help admiring women for their ability to dismiss the evidence of their senses. If that's what explained it. If it…

— Richard Russo

“When my nose finally stops bleeding and I've disposed of the bloody paper towels, Teddy Barnes insists on driving me home in…

— Richard Russo

“Can it be that what provides for us is the very thing that poisons us? Who hasn't considered this terrible possibility?”

— Richard Russo

“One of the odd things about middle age...was the strange decisions a man discovers he’s made by not really making them.”

— Richard Russo

“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

“It was my opinion (then and now) that two people who love each other need not necessarily have the same dreams and…

— Richard Russo

What does it feel like to be a parent? What does it feel like to be a child? And that's what stories…

— Richard Russo

Steve Yarbrough's Safe from the Neighbors will take your breath away. Ambitious, funny, sad, smart, and beautifully crafted, it's everything a novel…

— Richard Russo

“He clearly regarded finding the glove compartment locked now as a disappointing development. Like arriving someplace for dinner, assuming you'd be welcome,…

— Richard Russo

Sleep is over-rated. Have you ever noticed how it's always recommended to people anybody with half a brain can see need to…

— Richard Russo