Richard Russo: Laugh, I Thought I’d Die: A Meditation on Humor (January 1997)

In this lecture, fiction writer Richard Russo affirms the importance of comic writing; he argues that the comic view of the world is aligned with a sense of wonder, and considers how effective writers can slow down thinking and perception enough that delight and wonder can come through. Each writer must learn to recognize and develop his or her own literary identity, Russo suggests, and not everyone is a comic writer; but, he argues, a comic worldview is as truthful as a tragic one.