I have to have a character worth caring about. I tend not to start writing books about people I dont have a lot of sympathy for because Im just going to be with them too long. – Richard Russo
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 dont mean to. – Richard Russo
Movies have to handle time very efficiently. Theyre about stringing scenes together in the present. Novels arent necessarily about that. – Richard Russo
My books are elegiac in the sense that theyre odes to a nation that even I sometimes think may not exist anymore except in my memory and my imagination. – Richard Russo
At the risk of appearing disingenuous, I dont really think of myself as writing humor. Im simply reporting on the world I observe, which is frequently hilarious. – Richard Russo
I never worry about people not taking my work seriously as a result of the humor. In the end, the comics best trick is the illusion that comedy is effortless. That people imagine what hes doing is easy is an occupational hazard. – Richard Russo
About 15 years ago I went though a period of a year or so when I just couldnt 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 werent good were good. – Richard Russo
I dont think theres a shortage of material in the world. Or in my head. I just pray for continued good health, because Ive got other stories to tell. – Richard Russo
People often ask me how I make things funny. I dont make things funny. – Richard Russo
If you work at comedy too laboriously, you can kill whats funny in the joke. – Richard Russo
You just kind of have faith. If that sounds kind of mystical, its because I really dont 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
Truth be told, Im not an easy man. I can be an entertaining one, though its been my experience that most people dont want to be entertained. They want to be comforted. – Richard Russo
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
Structure is one of the things that I always hope will reveal itself to me. – Richard Russo
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
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
