Casey Wells

“If you paid me for work," continued Max, whose rhetoric was more sophisticated than you might expect from a man with food in his beard, "I wouldn't have to feel worthless. There's not law says old people have to feel worthless all the while, you know. You paid me, I'd have some dignity."

Now it was Mile's turn to nod and smile agreeably. "I think the dignity ship set sail a long time ago, Dad.”
― Richard Russo, Empire Falls

“I'll tell you one thing, though. It's a terrible thing to be a disappointment to a good woman.”
― Richard Russo

“The line of gray along the horizon is brighter now, and with the coming light I feel a certainty: that there is, despite our wild imaginings, only one life. The ghostly others, no matter how real they seem, no matter how badly we need them, are phantoms. The one life we're left with is sufficient to fill and refill our imperfect hearts with joy, and then to shatter them. And it never, ever lets up.”
― Richard Russo, Bridge of Sighs

“She never answers during the day," Max explained. "She lets her machine pick up."

People like you are the reason other people get answering machines to begin with," Miles told him. "In fact, people like you are driving a lot of modern technology.”
― Richard Russo, Empire Falls