“By ignoring a lot of American culture you can write more interesting s...” — Richard Russo Quote

“By ignoring a lot of American culture you can write more interesting stories. Unfortunately, if you were writing about America as it is, you'd be writing about a lot of people sitting in front of television sets.”

“If there's an enduring theme in my work, it's probably the effects of class on American life.”

“I've never written nearly as much about place as people seem to think I do. I just write about class.”

“'Luke Cage' came out in 1972 at the height of the blaxploitation era. It was a literary response to this notion of blaxploitation movies. It was the first time in American culture that Hollywood was embracing black movies.”

“There's been an unquestionable decline in American culture. The education system is thin on the ground. People don't read as deeply and at length as they used to. And the media has been scattered into so many cable channels.”

“I sang the 'Sunday Night Football' theme song two years in a row - my first part in American culture, although I still don't know anything about American football.”