A lot of my characters in all of my books have a self-destructive urge. They’ll do precisely the thing that they know is wrong, take a perverse delight in doing the wrong thing. Richard Russo Read Quote
Some authors have a very hard time understanding that in order to be faithful to the spirit of the book, it’s almost always impossible to remain faithful to the text. You have to make changes. Richard Russo Read Quote
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. Richard Russo Read Quote
You use simple brushstrokes in a screenplay for things over which you would take much greater pains in a novel. Richard Russo Read Quote
Movies have to handle time very efficiently. They’re about stringing scenes together in the present. Novels aren’t necessarily about that. Richard Russo Read Quote
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 Read Quote
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 Read Quote
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 Read Quote
