Richard Russo quotes - page 3

I get and read an enormous number of first novels. (Richard Russo)
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. View quote
Richard Russo
Truth be told, I'm not an easy man. I can be an entertaining one, though it's been my experience that most people don't want to be entertained. They want to be comforted. View quote
Richard Russo
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. Here's the thing. Most of what we witness in life is too complex to take in whole. Because of this we unconsciously edit what we see, select what to really record and what to ignore, which is why people who look at the same thing don't necessarily see the same thing... Comic writers don't so much invent funny things as strip away the distractions, the impediments to laughter. View quote
Richard Russo
If you work at comedy too laboriously, you can kill what's funny in the joke. View quote
Richard Russo
America has always been a nation of small places, and as we lose them, we're losing part of ourselves. View quote
Richard Russo
I was pretty dead set against ever writing an academic novel. It's always been my view that there are already more than enough academic novels and that most of them aren't any good. Most of them are self-conscious and bitter, the work of people who want to settle grudges. View quote
Richard Russo
...aware, as always, that the truth isn't much of substitute for a good answer. View quote
Richard Russo
One life isn't enough. View quote
Richard Russo
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. View quote
Richard Russo
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)
Usually by the time I finish a book tour I've just about had it with the book. View quote
Richard Russo
My dad had this rock hard body and would work 12- to 13-hour days. The guys he worked with were scrap-iron guys. Nobody on that road crew had read a book in 10 years, but there was something about the way they lived I really admired. View quote
Richard Russo
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? View quote
Richard Russo
Not everyone writes well from a child's point of view. View quote
Richard Russo
Writers are people who put pen to paper every day. View quote
Richard Russo
Bookstores, like libraries, are the physical manifestation of the wide world's longest, most thrilling conversation. View quote
Richard Russo
When you don't know what to do, try something; if that doesn't work, try something else. View quote
Richard Russo
Was anything in the world truer than that intuitive leap of the heart? View quote
Richard Russo
There are a great many sins in this world, none of them original. View quote
Richard Russo
They stayed, many of them, because staying was easier and less scary than leaving. (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. View quote
Richard Russo
You can't possibly judge your ability to control something until you've experienced the extremes of its capabilities. Do you understand? View quote
Richard Russo
Don't even the best and most fortunate of lives hint at other possibilities, at a different kind of sweetness and, yes, bitterness too? Isn't this why we can't help feeling cheated, even when we know we haven't been? View quote
Richard Russo
Knowing and knowing what to do about it were two different things. View quote
Richard Russo