Richard Russo

Richard Russo
Richard Russois an American novelist, short story writer, screenwriter, and teacher...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth15 July 1949
CountryUnited States of America
paper pen people writers
Writers are people who put pen to paper every day.
failures likely quite truth writer
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.
best comedy easy humor illusion imagine people result seriously taking trick work worry
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.
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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.
american-novelist dramatic offer stories
What does it feel like to be a parent? What does it feel like to be a child? And that's what stories do. They bring you there. They offer a dramatic explanation, which is always different from an expository explanation.
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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.
experience people though truth
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.
american-novelist time tour
Usually by the time I finish a book tour I've just about had it with the book.
chance gets hung phone pitch
If you say you don't have any incentives, the phone gets hung up and you don't have a chance to pitch Maine. You have to be in the ballpark.
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I loved the idea of having Paul Newman here, and that wonderful cast. I was particularly glad to see . . . that army of people, many of them local, who were set into motion by that film.
thinking doors stories
I looked back at some of my earlier published stories with genuine horror and remorse. I got thinking, How many extant copies might there be, who owns them, and do they keep their doors locked?
numbers firsts enormous
I get and read an enormous number of first novels.
beautiful ruins masterpiece
Why mince words? Beautiful Ruins is an absolute masterpiece.
distance intellectual afternoon
That afternoon I came to understand that one of the deepest purposes of intellectual sophistication is to provide distance between us and our most disturbing personal truths and gnawing fears.