One of the most difficult things to say to another person is, 'I hope that you will love me for no good reason.' But it is what we all want and rarely dare to say to one another, to our children, to our parents and mates, to our friends, and to strangers, especially to strangers who have neither good, nor bad reasons to love us.
Russell BanksAlthough I still occasionally paint and draw, my life has now been shaped by my writing.
Russell BanksJohn Brown first swam into my vision in the 1960s when I was a political activist in the civil rights movement and the anti-war movement at Chapel Hill, where I went to university.
Russell BanksDriving home, it's all I can do to keep from crying. Time's come, time's gone, time's never returning, I say to myself. What's here in front of me is all I've got, I decide, and as I drive my car through the blowing snow it doesn't seem like much, except for the kindness that I've just exchanged with an old lady, so I concentrate on that.
Russell BanksThe best thing about writing programs is that it rationalized the apprenticeship of a writer.
Russell BanksWhat you believe matters, however. Itโs all anyone has to act on. And since what you do is who you are, your actions define you. If you donโt believe anything is true simply because you canโt logically prove whatโs true, you wonโt do anything. You wonโt be anything. Youโll 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. Itโs an old philosophical problem.
Russell Banks