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

#artistic #become #began #boy #drifted

I don't want it to be all that self-conscious or artificial, but it really grows out of my having invented myself as a listener so that I could hear her voice. ↗

— Russell Banks

#could #grows #having #hear #her

My major allegiance has been to storytelling, not to history. ↗

— Russell Banks

#been #history #major #storytelling

It's hard to spend years at a time working in total solitude with no reality-check. ↗

— Russell Banks

#solitude #spend #time #total #working

John 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 Banks

#anti-war #brown #chapel #chapel hill #civil

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

#books #finish #lists #more #relative

Motivations are too tangled and complex. ↗

— Russell Banks

#motivations #tangled #too

Nobody does anything for one reason. ↗

— Russell Banks

#does #nobody #reason

So the same cultural and political issues that divided us in 1968 are still dividing us. ↗

— Russell Banks

#divided #dividing #issues #political #political issues

Storytelling is an ancient and honorable act. An essential role to play in the community or tribe. It's one that I embrace wholeheartedly and have been fortunate enough to be rewarded for. ↗

— Russell Banks

#ancient #been #community #embrace #enough