John Gardner Quotes

Quotes about:

Art Dreams Pleasure Reality Writing

Self pity is easily the most destructive of the non-pharmaceutical narcotics; it is addictive, gives momentary pleasure and separates the victim from reality.

John Gardner

Reality, Self, Giving

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We read five words on the first page of a really good novel and we begin to forget that we are reading printed words on a page; we begin to see images.

John Gardner

Reading, Writing, Printed Word

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An excellent plumber is infinitely more admirable than an incompetent philosopher. The society which scorns excellence in plumbing because plumbing is a humble activity and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because it is an exalted activity will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy. Neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water.

John Gardner

Philosophy, Humble, Water

"Excellence, Can We be Equal and Excellent Too?" by John W. Gardner, (p. 86), 1961.

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As a rule of thumb I say, if Socrates, Jesus and Tolstoy wouldn't do it, don't.

John Gardner

Jesus, Thumbs, Ifs

John Gardner, Stewart O'Nan (1994). “On writers and writing”, Addison-Wesley Longman

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When people are serving, life is no longer meaningless.

John Gardner

Kindness, Thoughtful, People

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What art ought to do is tell stories which are moment-by-moment wonderful, which are true to human experience, and which in no way explain human experience.

John Gardner

Art, Stories, Way

John Gardner, Allan Richard Chavkin (1990). “Conversations with John Gardner”, p.16, Univ. Press of Mississippi

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Art, of course, is a way of thinking, a way of mining reality.

John Gardner

Art, Reality, Thinking

John Gardner, Stewart O'Nan (1994). “On writers and writing”, Addison-Wesley Longman

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One of the many interesting challenges nature presents us is its apparent disinterest in maintaining the order humans crave.

John Gardner

Order, Interesting, Challenges

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The citizen can bring our political and governmental institutions back to life, make them responsive and accountable, and keep them honest. No one else can.

John Gardner

Patriotic, Political, Democracy

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To write with taste, in the highest sense, is to write [...] so that no one commits suicide, no one despairs; to write [...] so that people understand, sympathize, see the universality of pain, and feel strengthened, if not directly encouraged to live on. If there is good to be said, the writer should say it. If there is bad to be said, he should say it in a way that reflects the truth that, though we see the evil, we choose to continue among the living. The true artist [...] gets his sense of worth and honor from his conviction that art is powerful--

John Gardner

Suicide, Art, Pain

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A common and usually unfortunate answer is “Write about what you know.” Nothing can be more limiting to the imagination, nothing is quicker to turn on the psyche's censoring devices and distortion systems, than trying to write truthfully.

John Gardner

Writing, Imagination, Knows

"The Art of Fiction: Notes on Craft for Young Writers".

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When I was a child I truly loved: Unthinking love as calm and deep As the North Sea. But I have lived, And now I do not sleep.

John Gardner

Children, Sleep, Sea

John Gardner (2010). “Grendel”, p.116, Vintage

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The primary subject of fiction is and has always been human emotion, values, and beliefs.

John Gardner

Fiction, Emotion, Belief

John Gardner (2010). “The Art of Fiction: Notes on Craft for Young Writers”, p.14, Vintage

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One must be just a little crazy to write a great novel. One must be capable of allowing the darkest, most ancient and shrewd parts of one’s being to take over the work from time to time.

John Gardner

Crazy, Writing, Littles

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Our noblest hopes grow teeth and pursue us like tigers.

John Gardner

Teeth, Grows, Pursue

John Gardner, Joe Servello (1977). “In the suicide mountains”, Random House Inc

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People will tell you that writing is too difficult, that it's impossible to get your work published, that you might as well hang yourself. Meanwhile, they'll keep writing and you'll have hanged yourself.

John Gardner

Writing, People, Might

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As every writer knows... there is something mysterious about the writer's ability, on any given day, to write. When the juices are flowing, or the writer is 'hot', an invisible wall seems to fall away, and the writer moves easily and surely from one kind of reality to another... Every writer has experienced at least moments of this strange, magical state. Reading student fiction one can spot at once where the power turns on and where it turns off, where the writer writes from 'inspiration' or deep, flowing vision, and where he had to struggle along on mere intellect.

John Gardner

Wall, Struggle, Moving

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The true artist plays mad with his soul, labors at the very lip of the volcano, but remembers and clings to his purpose, which is as strong as the dream. He is not someone possessed, like Cassandra, but a passionate, easily tempted explorer who fully intends to get home again, like Odysseus.

John Gardner

Dream, Strong, Home

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Talking, talking. Spinning a web of words, pale walls of dreams, between myself and all I see.

John Gardner

Dream, Wall, Spinning Around

John Gardner (2010). “Grendel”, p.8, Vintage

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I know everything, you see,' the old voice wheedled. 'The beginning, the present, the end. Everything. You now, you see the past and the present, like other low creatures: no higher faculties than memory and perception. But dragons, my boy, have a whole different kind of mind.' He stretched his mouth in a kind of smile, no trace of pleasure in it. 'We are from the mountaintop: all time, all space. We see in one instant the passionate vision and the blowout.

John Gardner

Memories, Boys, Past

John Gardner (2010). “Grendel”, p.62, Vintage

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Fiction does not spring into the world fully grown, like Athena. It is the process of writing and rewriting that makes a fiction original, if not profound.

John Gardner

Spring, Inspiration, Writing

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There is no limit to desire but desire's needs.

John Gardner

Desire, Needs, Limits

John Gardner (2010). “Grendel”, p.93, Vintage

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...ultimately it come down to, are you making or are you destroying? If you try very hard to create ways of living, create dreams of what is possible, then you win. If you don't, you may make a fortune in ten years, but you're not going to be read in twenty years, and that's that.

John Gardner

Dream, Winning, Years

John Gardner, Allan Richard Chavkin (1990). “Conversations with John Gardner”, p.168, Univ. Press of Mississippi

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Writing a novel is like heading out over the open sea in a small boat. It helps, if you have a plan and a course laid out.

John Gardner

Writing, Sea, Helping

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I couldn't go on, too conscious all at once of my whispering, my eternal posturing, always transforming the world with words--changing nothing.

John Gardner

Goes On, Whispering, World

John Gardner (2010). “Grendel”, p.49, Vintage

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Born: July 21, 1933
Died: September 14, 1982
Occupation: Novelist
Cite this Page: Citation

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