Self-pity is our worst enemy and if we yield to it, we can never do anything wise in this world. Helen keller
Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved. Helen keller
The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched - they must be felt with the heart. Helen keller
What I am finding now is that my audience is getting younger as I get older, which is a very good thing as you know - you don't want them to get older as you get older. Russell banks
The best thing about writing programs is that it rationalized the apprenticeship of a writer. Russell banks
The 60s passed and faded and I grew older, and in 1987 bought a house in upstate New York, and it turned out that John Brown was buried down the road from my house and that he had lived there longer than anywhere else and his house was still standing. Russell banks
So the same cultural and political issues that divided us in 1968 are still dividing us. Russell banks
One of the things I have tried to do with this book and with all of them really is avoid that simple, easy, reductionist view of motivation and to show we do things for a complex net of reasons, a real braid of reasons. Russell banks
Lists of books we reread and books we can't finish tell more about us than about the relative worth of the books themselves. Russell banks
If you dedicate your attention to discipline in your life you become smarter while you are writing than while you are hanging out with your pals or in any other line of work. Russell banks
I began as a boy with artistic talent... as a visual artist... I thought that was what I'd become and in my late teens drifted into reading serious literature. Russell banks
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