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. Richard Russo on dad
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. Richard Russo on experience
You just kind of have faith. If that sounds kind of mystical, it's because I really don't know how it works, but I trust that it does. I try to write the way I read, in order to find out what happens next. Richard Russo on faith
HBO is really famous for hiring good people and staying out of their way until they ask for help, or need it. And that reputation is earned. Richard Russo on famous
People often ask me how I make things funny. I don't make things funny. Richard Russo on funny
If you work at comedy too laboriously, you can kill what's funny in the joke. Richard Russo on funny
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 got other stories to tell. Richard Russo on health
About 15 years ago I went though a period of a year or so when I just couldn't find anything good. My wife noticed I was having trouble reading menus. I bought some cheap reading glasses in a drug store. I got home and suddenly all these books that weren't good were good. Richard Russo on home
Structure is one of the things that I always hope will reveal itself to me. Richard Russo on hope
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. Richard Russo on humor
I never worry about people not taking my work seriously as a result of the humor. In the end, the comic's best trick is the illusion that comedy is effortless. That people imagine what he's doing is easy is an occupational hazard. Richard Russo on humor
My books are elegiac in the sense that they're odes to a nation that even I sometimes think may not exist anymore except in my memory and my imagination. Richard Russo on imagination
Movies have to handle time very efficiently. They're about stringing scenes together in the present. Novels aren't necessarily about that. Richard Russo on movies
I think that if people are instructed about anything, it should be about the nature of cruelty. And about why people behave so cruelly to each other. And what kind of satisfactions they derive from it. And why there is always a cost, and a price to be paid. Richard Russo on nature
If my career continues along its current arc, people will probably look at me and see a writer who is obsessed with the relationship between rich and poor and with how the rich somehow or other always manage to betray the poor, even when they don't mean to. Richard Russo on relationship
I have to have a character worth caring about. I tend not to start writing books about people I don't have a lot of sympathy for because I'm just going to be with them too long. Richard Russo on sympathy
You just kind of have faith. If that sounds kind of mystical, it's because I really don't know how it works, but I trust that it does. I try to write the way I read, in order to find out what happens next. Richard Russo on trust