Have you ever noticed that when people use the expression 'I have to say', what follows usually needn't be said?

- Richard Russo

That afternoon I came to understand that one of the deepest purposes of intellectual sophistication is to provide distance between us and our most di…

- Richard Russo

I read pretty voraciously. If it's good, I don't care what it is.

- Richard Russo

You can't possibly judge your ability to control something until you've experienced the extremes of its capabilities. Do you understand?

- Richard Russo

What if all everybody needed in the world was to be sure of one friend? What if you were the one, and you refused to say those simple words?

- Richard Russo

Bookstores, like libraries, are the physical manifestation of the wide world's longest, most thrilling conversation.

- Richard Russo

You use simple brushstrokes in a screenplay for things over which you would take much greater pains in a novel.

- Richard Russo

Which is why we have spouses and children and parents and colleagues and friends, because someone has to know us better than we know ourselves. We ne…

- Richard Russo

When you don't know what to do, try something; if that doesn't work, try something else.

- Richard Russo