Jane Smiley Quotes - Page 5

Quotes about:

• Because your goal is a complete rough draft of a novel, and every rough draft, by being complete, is perfect.

  Jane Smiley

  Perfect, Goal, Rough Drafts

  Jane Smiley (2008). “13 Ways of Looking at the Novel”, p.220, Anchor

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• Before I write a novel, images float around in my head that work like icons - they are meaningless in themselves, but serve as reminders.

  Jane Smiley

  Writing, Icons, Reminders

  "In the beginning" by Jane Smiley, www.theguardian.com. February 22, 2008.

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• The fact is that the same sequence of days can arrange themselves into a number of different stories.

  Jane Smiley

  Numbers, Different, Stories

  Jane Smiley (2011). “A Thousand Acres: A Novel”, p.155, Anchor

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• When I went to first grade and the other children said that their fathers were farmers, I simply didn't believe them. I agreed in order to be polite, but in my heart I knew that those men were impostors, as farmers and as fathers, too. In my youthful estimation, Laurence Cook defined both categories. To really believe that others even existed in either category was to break the First Commandment.

  Jane Smiley

  Children, Father, Believe

  FaceBook post by Jane Smiley from Jun 15, 2014

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• As soon as you bring up money, I notice, conversation gets sociological, then political, then moral.

  Jane Smiley

  Political, Moral, Conversation

  Jane Smiley (2011). “Ordinary Love and Good Will”, p.108, Anchor

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• With preference came point of view; with point of view, personality; with personality, uniqueness; with uniqueness, grief.

  Jane Smiley

  Grief, Views, Personality

  Jane Smiley (1995). “Moo”, Knopf

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• Most of my childhood revolved around wondering when we would be blown up by the Russians. I couldn't stand the news, I knew that if the missile were launched, mortality would arrive in half an hour, so I spent a lot of my childhood feeling that I was 30 minutes from being dead.

  Jane Smiley

  Childhood, Feelings, Would Be

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• Novelists of a conservative or more purely aesthetic bent hold up better on the surface, but their novels go in and out of fashion according to relevance or irrelevance.

  Jane Smiley

  Fashion, Irrelevance, Novelists

  Jane Smiley (2008). “13 Ways of Looking at the Novel”, p.434, Anchor

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• Some novelists are luckier than others in the eras of their formative intellectual years, but all Weltanschauungs return, which means that most novelists have at least a chance of a revival.

  Jane Smiley

  Mean, Years, Intellectual

  Jane Smiley (2008). “13 Ways of Looking at the Novel”, p.434, Anchor

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• When 'The Awakening' was published it was considered so scandalous it was banned in the author's home-town library, and she herself was barred from the Fine Arts Club in the same city. What the novel has to offer, among other things, is honesty.

  Jane Smiley

  Art, Honesty, Home

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• Why are we reading a Shakespeare play or 'Huckleberry Finn?' Well, because these works are great, but they also tell us something about the times in which they were created. Unfortunately, previous eras and dead authors often used language or accepted as normal sentiments that we now find unacceptable.

  Jane Smiley

  Reading, Play, Eras

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• People with good intentions never give up!

  Jane Smiley

  Giving Up, People, Good Intentions

  Jane Smiley (2010). “Duplicate Keys”, p.290, Anchor

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• A novelist has two lives-- a reading and writing life, and a lived life. he or she cannot be understood at all apart from this.

  Jane Smiley

  Reading, Writing, Two

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• In my experience, there is only one motivation, and that is desire. No reasons or principle contain it or stand against it.

  Jane Smiley

  Inspirational, Motivational, Success

  FaceBook post by Jane Smiley from May 29, 2011

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• All equestrians, if they last long enough, learn that riding in whatever form is a lifelong sport and art, an endeavor that is both familiar and new every time you take the horse out of his stall or pasture.

  Jane Smiley

  Sports, Art, Horse

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• There are several methods for introducing your children to driving, and all of them are bad. Probably the worst is to put it off.

  Jane Smiley

  Children, Driving, Introducing

  "Driving: a parent's nightmare" by Jane Smiley, www.theguardian.com. July 9, 2010.

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• Oh, that sound? I'm in the hot tub, reading a novel.

  Jane Smiley

  Reading, Sound, Hot

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• Another thing I learned is that novels, even those from apparently distant times and places, remain current and enlightening, and also comforting.

  Jane Smiley

  Comforting, Enlightening, Currents

  Jane Smiley (2008). “13 Ways of Looking at the Novel”, p.279, Anchor

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• There is a sociology of horses, as well as a psychology. It is most evident in the world of horse racing, where many horses are gathered together, where year after year, decade after decade, they do the same, rather simple thing - run in races and try to win.

  Jane Smiley

  Running, Horse, Winning

  "A Year at the Races: Reflections on Horses, Humans, Love, Money, and Luck". Book by Jane Smiley, www.theguardian.com. April 2004.

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• Somehow, knowing that Alzheimer's is coming mocks all one's aspirations - to tell stories, to think through certain issues as only a novel can do, to be recognised for one's accomplishments and hard work - in a way that old familiar death does not.

  Jane Smiley

  Hard Work, Thinking, Alzheimer's

  "With the benefit of foresight..." by Jane Smiley, www.theguardian.com. May 18, 2002.

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• There are hundreds of Frank Lloyd Wright buildings around the United States and in other countries, too. Wright lived into his 90s, and one of his most famous buildings, the Guggenheim Museum in New York, was completed just before his death. Wright buildings look like Wright buildings - that is their paradox.

  Jane Smiley

  Country, New York, Museums

  "Lively, daring genius" by Jane Smiley, www.theguardian.com. October 18, 2007.

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• you know that the urge for revenge is a fact of marital life.

  Jane Smiley

  Revenge, Facts, Knows

  Jane Smiley (2011). “Ordinary Love and Good Will”, p.195, Anchor

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• A novelist is on the cusp between someone who knows everything and someone who knows nothing.

  Jane Smiley

  Novelists, Cusp, Knows

  Jane Smiley (2008). “13 Ways of Looking at the Novel”, p.46, Anchor

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• Gossip. The more you talk about why people do things, the more ideas you have about how the world works.

  Jane Smiley

  Ideas, People, Gossip

  "Fictionaut Five: Jane Smiley" by Meg Pokrass, fictionaut.com. December 29, 2010.

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• everything is toxic. That's the point. You can't avoid toxins. Thinking you can is just another symptom of the toxic overload stage.

  Jane Smiley

  Thinking, Toxic, Toxins

  Jane Smiley (2011). “A Thousand Acres: A Novel”, p.29, Anchor

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