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
real heart light
The line of gray along the horizon is brighter now, and with the coming light I feel a certainty: that there is, despite our wild imaginings, only one life. The ghostly others, no matter how real they seem, no matter how badly we need them, are phantoms. The one life we're left with is sufficient to fill and refill our imperfect hearts with joy, and then to shatter them. And it never, ever lets up.
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.
books bought cheap glasses good home noticed period suddenly though trouble wife year
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.
american-novelist characters easiest simply speaking
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.
army glad loved motion newman paul wonderful
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.