Diane Johnson Quotes

• But novels are never about what they are about; that is, there is always deeper, or more general, significance. The author may not be aware of this till she is pretty far along with it. A novel's whole pattern is rarely apparent at the outset of writing, or even at the end; that is when the writer finds out what a novel is about, and the job becomes one of understanding and deepening or sharpening what is already written. That is finding the theme.

  Diane Johnson

  Jobs, Writing, Understanding

  44 Copy quote

• Laughter is the jam on the toast of life. It adds flavor, keeps it from being too dry, and makes it easier to swallow.

  Diane Johnson

  Laughter, Add, Jam

  4 Copy quote

• A chaplain's biggest gift is to be present and just listen.

  Diane Johnson

  Chaplains, Just Listen

  92 Copy quote

• Not having to own a car has made me realize what a waste of time the automobile is.

  Diane Johnson

  Car, Waste, Wasting Time

  7 Copy quote

• Women have the feeling that since they didn't make the rules, the rules have nothing to do with them.

  Diane Johnson

  Work, Feelings

  Lying Low ch. 9 (1978)

  6 Copy quote

• ...is this not in fact the purpose of young Americans going abroad? To make them think of things they never thought of?

  Diane Johnson

  Thinking, Purpose, Facts

  Diane Johnson (2003). “Le Divorce”, p.10, Penguin

  4 Copy quote

• The whole process of writing a novel is having this great, beautiful idea and then spoiling it.

  Diane Johnson

  Beautiful, Writing, Ideas

  4 Copy quote

• Statuettes of drunken sailors, velvet pictures of island maidens, plastic seashell lamps made in Taiwan. What contempt the people who think up souvenirs have for other people.

  Diane Johnson

  Travel, Thinking, Islands

  Diane Johnson (1993). “Natural opium: some travelers' tales”, Alfred A. Knopf

  8 Copy quote

• Glenda Adams has written a wicked and witty novel.

  Diane Johnson

  Witty, Wicked, Novel

  4 Copy quote

• In what we think of as bad dialogue, the characters talk directly to each other.

  Diane Johnson

  Character, Thinking, Crafts

  "In the Writing #4: Why Justified ‘s Dialogue is Best-in-Television" by Jesse Damiani, www.huffingtonpost.com. December 27, 2013.

  4 Copy quote

• But novels are never about what they are about; that is, there is always deeper, or more general, significance. The author may not be aware of this till she is pretty far along with it.

  Diane Johnson

  May, Novel, Significance

  4 Copy quote

• Any essayist setting out on a frail apparatus of notings and jottings is a brave person.

  Diane Johnson

  Brave Person, Frail, Persons

  4 Copy quote

• The Novelist, afraid his ideas may be foolish, slyly puts them in the mouth of some other fool and reserves the right to disavow them.

  Diane Johnson

  Ideas, Novelists, Mouths

  Diane Johnson (1982). “Terrorists and novelists”, Alfred A. Knopf

  4 Copy quote

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