“I much prefer working with kids whose life could be completely upended...” — Russell Banks Quote

“I much prefer working with kids whose life could be completely upended by a reading of a book over a weekend. You give them a book to read - they go home and come back a changed person. And that is so much more interesting and exciting.”

“First of all it's usually women who run these higher primate sanctuaries, rarely men. They are white. They come from privileged backgrounds. They are educated.”

“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.”

“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.”

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

“Lists of books we reread and books we can't finish tell more about us than about the relative worth of the books themselves.”

“I played Woodstock in '69, and it really changed my life. Without a doubt, it was the single event that really changed the way I felt about music. Up to that point, I hadn't really thought of myself as more serious musician, and I didn't really have that much interest in pop music.”

“The thing is, I want to play real characters and not all girls can be pretty. The thing is, you get these girls who say 'I'm a character actor' then you see them in a role and nothing has really changed but the outfit.”

“The thrill of coming home has never changed.”

“I never want to change. I get nervous about that... people thinking that I've changed just because the circumstances of my life have.”

“When Tupac came out, my writing changed for sure. I learned from it. It was a cultural thing.”

“I think my novel, 'Walden Two,' has made people stop and look at the culture they have inherited and wonder if it is the last word or whether it can be changed.”