Ernest Gaines Quotes

Quotes about:

Dying Jazz Writing

Sometimes you got to hurt something to help something. Sometimes you have to plow under one thing in order for something else to grow.

Ernest Gaines

Hurt, Order, Helping

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Why is it that, as a culture, we are more comfortable seeing two men holding guns than holding hands?

Ernest Gaines

Motivational, Respect, Integrity

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I want you to show them the difference between what they think you are and what you can be.

Ernest Gaines

Thinking, Differences, Want

Ernest J. Gaines (2015). “A Lesson Before Dying”, p.189, Serpent's Tail

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I have no more to say except this: We must live with our own conscience.

Ernest Gaines

Conscience

Ernest J. Gaines (2015). “A Lesson Before Dying”, p.15, Serpent's Tail

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Question everything. Every stripe, every star, every word spoken. Everything.

Ernest Gaines

Stars, African American, Stripes

Ernest J. Gaines (2012). “Bloodline: Five Stories”, p.95, Vintage

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Words mean nothing. Action is the only thing. Doing. That's the only thing.

Ernest Gaines

Life, Motivational, Mean

Ernest J. Gaines (2012). “Bloodline: Five Stories”, p.101, Vintage

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We all have much more in common than we have difference. I would say that about people all over the world. They don't know how much in common that they have

Ernest Gaines

Differences, People, World

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Without love for my fellow man and respect for nature, to me, life is an obscenity.

Ernest Gaines

Men

"National Medal of Arts". Academy of Achievemnt Interview, www.achievement.org. May 4, 2001.

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You've got to bend with the wind or you're broken.

Ernest Gaines

Wind, Broken

Ernest J. Gaines, John Lowe (1995). “Conversations with Ernest Gaines”, p.128, Univ. Press of Mississippi

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Everything's been said, but it needs saying again.

Ernest Gaines

Needs, Said

Ernest J. Gaines, John Lowe (1995). “Conversations with Ernest Gaines”, p.251, Univ. Press of Mississippi

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The Six Golden Rules of Writing: Read, read, read, and write, write, write.

Ernest Gaines

Writing, Golden, Six

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Nietzsche said without music, life would be a mistake. To me, without books, life would be a mistake.

Ernest Gaines

Mistake, Book, Would Be

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There will always be men struggling to change, and there will always be those who are controlled by the past.

Ernest Gaines

Change, Struggle, Past

Ernest J. Gaines, John Lowe (1995). “Conversations with Ernest Gaines”, p.29, Univ. Press of Mississippi

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A myth is an old lie that people believe in. White people believe that they're better than anyone else on earth - and that's a myth.

Ernest Gaines

Lying, Believe, White

Ernest J. Gaines (2015). “A Lesson Before Dying”, p.189, Serpent's Tail

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Today I must write a paragraph or a page better than I did yesterday.

Ernest Gaines

Writing, Yesterday, Pages

"Author Ernest Gaines comes home to where his ancestors were enslaved" by Wayne Drash, www.cnn.com. November 9, 2010.

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I write to try to find out who I am. One of my main themes is manliness. I think I'm trying to figure out what manliness really is.

Ernest Gaines

Writing, Thinking, Who I Am

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You learn from music, from watching great athletes at work - how disciplined they are, how they move. You learn these things by watching a shortstop at work, how he concentrates on one thing at a time. You learn from classic music, from the blues and jazz, from bluegrass. From all this, you learn how to sustain a great line without bringing in unnecessary words.

Ernest Gaines

Moving, Athlete, Crafts

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The artist must be like a heart surgeon. He must approach something with sympathy, but with a sort of coldness and work and work until he finds some kind of perfection in his work. You can't have blood splashing all over the place. Things must be done very cleanly.

Ernest Gaines

Heart, Artist, Blood

Ernest J. Gaines, John Lowe (1995). “Conversations with Ernest Gaines”, p.21, Univ. Press of Mississippi

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In all my stories and novels, no one ever escapes Louisiana. Maybe that is because my soul never left Louisiana, although my body did go to California.

Ernest Gaines

California, Soul, Louisiana

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He told us that most of us would die violently, and those who did not would be brought down to the level of beasts.

Ernest Gaines

Would Be, Levels, Beast

Ernest J. Gaines (2015). “A Lesson Before Dying”, p.65, Serpent's Tail

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I was raised by a lady that was crippled all her life but she did everything for me and she raised me. She washed our clothes, cooked our food, she did everything for us. I don't think I ever heard her complain a day in her life. She taught me responsibility towards my brother and sisters and the community.

Ernest Gaines

Brother, Responsibility, Thinking

Live chat, cnn.com. May 13, 1999.

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How do people come up with a date and a time to take life from another man? Who made them God?

Ernest Gaines

Men, People, Made

Ernest J. Gaines (2004). “A Lesson Before Dying: A Novel”, p.159, Vintage

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We wait till now? Now, when we're old men, we get to be brave?

Ernest Gaines

Men, Bravery, Waiting

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And that's all we are Jefferson, all of us on this earth, a piece of drifting wood. until we - each of us, individually- decide to become something else. I am still that piece of drifting wood, and those out there are no better. But you can be better.

Ernest Gaines

Pieces, Earth, Woods

Ernest J. Gaines (2015). “A Lesson Before Dying”, p.191, Serpent's Tail

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I have learned as much about writing about my people by listening to blues and jazz and spirituals as I have by reading novels.

Ernest Gaines

Reading, Writing, People

Ernest J. Gaines (2007). “Mozart and Leadbelly”, p.27, Vintage

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Born: January 15, 1933
Occupation: Author
Cite this Page: Citation

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