One hates a person for the same reason one loves him Russell Banks More Quotes by Russell Banks More Quotes From Russell Banks Although I still occasionally paint and draw, my life has now been shaped by my writing. Russell Banks draws paint writing And there are people who want to be writers because they love to write. And they care. Russell Banks care writing people I am not a ventriloquist. Russell Banks We know that people we love are both good and bad, but we expect strangers to be one or the other. Russell Banks good-and-bad stranger people Like Neanderthals, men prefer to hunt alone or, if in a pack, at the head of it. Women, whether in the field or in a campfire, are collaborative, and when they hunt...they work together. Russell Banks neanderthals working-together men It's hard to know more about a person's life than what that person wants you to know. Russell Banks persons knows want Luck can't last a lifetime unless you die young. Russell Banks lasts luck lifetime There is a wonderful intelligence to the unconscious. It’s always smarter than we are. Russell Banks smarter unconscious wonderful The issue of torture, connected to American soldiers, is not somewhere most people want to linger. We may not want to confront this issue so much in the U.S. because of how we want to think about our veterans. There's the sense that we want to think of our veterans as - if they're damaged, damaged by something glamorous, like a firefight. Russell Banks our-veterans issues thinking Public libraries are the sole community centers left in America. The degree to which a branch of the local library is connected to the larger culture is a reflection of the degree to which the community itself is connected to the larger culture. Russell Banks community reflection america Loyalty is weird, it kicks in when you dont expect it and the people who deserve loyalty least seem to get it the most. Russell Banks kicks loyalty people We are the planet, fully as much as water, earth, fire and air are the planet, and if the planet survives, it will only be through heroism. Not occasional heroism, a remarkable instance of it here and there, but constant heroism, systematic heroism, heroism as governing principle. Russell Banks fire air water Boys like it when you talk to them as if they were grown men—at least he always did when he was a kid—because they pretend that’s what they are anyhow, grown-up men, and they do it for their entire lives. Russell Banks men boys kids If you dedicate your attention to discipline in your life you become smarter. Russell Banks pals discipline attention For almost anyone who chooses to be a writer, since so very few writers are able to learn a living from their work that is equivalent to the living earned by the average dentist or accountant. Russell Banks dentist able average Through writing, through that process, they realize that they become more intelligent, and more honest and more imaginative than they can be in any other part of their life. Russell Banks honest intelligent writing My major allegiance has been to storytelling, not to history. Russell Banks allegiance has-beens storytelling What you believe matters, however. It’s all anyone has to act on. And since what you do is who you are, your actions define you. If you don’t believe anything is true simply because you can’t logically prove what’s true, you won’t do anything. You won’t be anything. You’ll end up spending your life in a rocking chair looking out at the horizon waiting for an answer that never comes. You might as well be dead. It’s an old philosophical problem. Russell Banks philosophical waiting believe Much more than memoir; it's history. Russell Banks memoir A couple of years I taught in graduate programs at NYU and Columbia, in the early eighties. Russell Banks nyu couple years
