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
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
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
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