At the risk of appearing disingenuous, I don't really think of myself as 'writing humor.' I'm simply reporting on the world I observe, which is frequently hilarious.
Richard RussoRead
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Understanding cruelty can help us comprehend human behavior and its consequences.
Richard Russo emphasizes the importance of educating people about the nature of cruelty and the motivations behind it. He suggests that by exploring why individuals act cruelly and the satisfaction they gain from such behavior, we can better understand its repercussions and the costs involved in such actions, both for the perpetrator and the victim.
Themes
CrueltyHuman BehaviorConsequencesSatisfactionUnderstanding
In practice
Example use cases
In a classroom discussion about ethics, this quote can be used to highlight the importance of teaching empathy.
More from Richard Russo
All quotes →I have to have a character worth caring about. I tend not to start writing books about people I don't have a lot of sympathy for because I'm just going to be with them too long.
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I told him the truth, that I loved him and didn't regret anything about our lives together. But do we ever 'tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God' as my father used to say, to those we love? Or even to ourselves? Don't even the best and most fortunate of lives hint at other possibilities, at a different kind of sweetness and, yes, bitterness too? Isn't this why we can't help feeling cheated, even when we know we haven't been?
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He'd discovered that his memories of that summer were like bad movie montages - young lovers tossing a Frisbee in the park, sharing a melting ice-cream cone, bicycling along the river, laughing, talking, kissing, a sappy score drowning out the dialogue because the screenwriter had no idea what these two people might say to each other.
Richard RussoRead
A couple years ago, the novelist Russell Banks told me he was reading the ancient Greek historian Herodotus. I asked why. He said, 'Because I've always wanted to and am tired of having my reading assigned.' I thought it was a marvelous declaration of independence.
Richard RussoRead
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