Richard Russo Quotes

I met Eva Ibbotson before I became a writer myself, and was in awe of her then.

If there's a 13- or 14-year old kid who is yearning for something beyond the social forces in his own world, in his own neighborhood, the library is the only place where he can go to find that. It was exciting and thrilling to me all the time I worked in the library. It's such a force for social good and it can do so much.

If my career detour from special education to singing has done one thing, it has afforded me the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of others.

A novel I read when I was about 17 or 18 - 'The World According to Garp,' by John Irving - really made me want to become a writer. The character of Garp is a novelist, and at the time, the whole lifestyle of being a writer was hugely appealing to me.

Libraries have always seemed like the richest places in the world to me, and I?ve done some of my best learning and thinking thanks to them. Libraries and librarians have definitely changed my life ? and the lives of countless other Americans.

My father gave me free run of his library. When I think of my boyhood, I think in terms of the books I read.

Somebody said, 'Hey, there is a lull in your career. Why don't you write books about your [dyslexia]?' We are currently writing our 34th novel.

A collection of good books, with a soul to it in the shape of a librarian, becomes a vitalized power among the impulses by which the world goes on to improvement.

Art has absolutely changed my life.

My very first movie, 'Mary Poppins,' which I talk about, it just turned me into an obsessive, creative creature who had to sort of reply to the experience by drawing things, making things. It was like it forced - it made me into this obsessive, creative creature... I don't know any other way of putting it.

I get the best inspiration or the most creativity from real emotions.

'Doctor Who' is part of my science fictional DNA. You could take it out of me, and I'd probably still have ended up being a writer, but almost certainly not the same one.

You know, one of my favorite movies that inspired me and got me started was 'Dead Poet's Society.'

I don't think there was a time I ever thought of myself as anything but a writer. I thought I was going to be the next Toni Morrison.

I've only had four ideas for a novel in my life, and I've written all of them.

My music is inspired by my life: the people in my life, the people I have relationships with, the people I love, the people that make me feel something.

Liz Benedict, a teacher of mine at Iowa, is the person who introduced me to James Salter's work.

Music doesn't come out of you, it comes through you. You are almost like a messenger.

I don't know who I would have been if I never watched MotoGP.

Yes, I do write poetry. It's very therapeutic. I'm influenced by Pablo Neruda and Gulzar Saab. It's all very personal.

One of the great privileges of my life was growing up in a house without books.

I would like to say I can change millions of lives, but realistically, if my journey inspires 10 people to go to university or to achieve something, then I think I've done my job.

The Dumas memoirs - which I also discovered when I was a kid - had a big impact on me.

My grandmother had a Ph.D in library science, so I grew up in a library, and I would appreciate those books and the smell of them and how they'd have these series, and it was cool to me. I always felt like, if I had an opportunity, I'd create an album that felt like a series.

I sometimes sit and draw people on the bus, or some fantasy hybrid animal. You know, wherever the hand will lead.