American - Novelist | July 15, 1949 -
When I look back over my novels what I find is that when I think I'm finished with a theme, I'm generally not. And usually themes will recur from novel to novel in odd, new guises.
Richard Russo
ThinkLookBackFindNewWill
Ultimately, your theme will find you. You don't have to go looking for it.
LookingYouFindGoWillTheme
You just kind of have faith. If that sounds kind of mystical, it's because I really don't 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.
FaithTrustYouFindKnowKind
Structure is one of the things that I always hope will reveal itself to me.
HopeMeWillStructureAlways
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.
GoodPeopleReputationFamousHelp
I can be glib and truthful all at once.
I CanTruthfulOnce
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.
ChildParentFeelYouAlwaysBring
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.
NaturePeopleThinkPriceKindWhy
I think the darker aspect of my fiction-or anybody's fiction-is by its very nature somehow easier to talk about.
NatureThinkTalkEasierI Think
It's no secret that in my books I'm trying to make the comic and the serious rub up against each other just as closely and uncomfortably as I can.
TryingI CanSeriousSecretUpJust
I want that which is hilarious and that which is heartbreaking to occupy the same territory in the book because I think they very often occupy the same territory in life, much as we try to separate them.
LifeBookThinkWantTrySame
If there's an enduring theme in my work, it's probably the effects of class on American life.
LifeWorkAmericanClassTheme
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