Jane Smiley Quotes

Quotes about:

• Many people, myself among them, feel better at the mere sight of a book.

  Jane Smiley

  Inspirational, Inspiring, Book

  Jane Smiley (2008). “13 Ways of Looking at the Novel”, p.14, Anchor

  47 Copy quote

• Every first draft is perfect, because all a first draft has to do is exist.

  Jane Smiley

  Perfect, Firsts

  FaceBook post by Jane Smiley from Apr 06, 2013

  35 Copy quote

• Whatever you love is beautiful; love comes first, beauty follows. The greater your capacity for love, the more beauty you find in the world.

  Jane Smiley

  Beautiful, Love Is, World

  FaceBook post by Jane Smiley from Mar 12, 2012

  4 Copy quote

• A child who is protected from all controversial ideas is as vulnerable as a child who is protected from every germ. The infection, when it comes- and it will come- may overwhelm the system, be it the immune system or the belief system.

  Jane Smiley

  Children, Ideas, May

  FaceBook post by Jane Smiley from Jul 28, 2012

  70 Copy quote

• People are quite frequently eccentric.

  Jane Smiley

  People, Eccentric

  "Divorce! It’s Good for the Children!" by Jane Smiley, www.huffingtonpost.com. November 12, 2010.

  4 Copy quote

• The novel as a form is usually seen to be moral if its readers consider freedom, individuality, democracy, privacy, social connection, tolerance and hope to be morally good, but it is not considered moral if the highest values of a society are adherence to rules and traditional mores, the maintenance of hierarchical relationships, and absolute ideas of right and wrong. Any society based on the latter will find novels inherently immoral and subversive.

  Jane Smiley

  Ideas, Tolerance, Individuality

  Jane Smiley (2014). “Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Novel”, p.129, Faber & Faber

  4 Copy quote

• My great fear is not that I'll run out of ideas. It's that I'll run out of time.

  Jane Smiley

  Running, Ideas

  4 Copy quote

• You know what getting married is? It's agreeing to taking this person who right now is at the top of his form, full of hopes and ideas, feeling good, looking good, wildly interested in you because you're the same way, and sticking by him while he slowly disintegrates. And he does the same for you. You're his responsibility now and he's yours. If no one else will take care of him, you will. If everyone else rejects you, he won't. What do you think love is? Going to bed all the time?

  Jane Smiley

  Love, Marriage, Responsibility

  11 Copy quote

• The body, the mind, and the spirit don't form a pyramid, they form a circle. Each of them runs into the other two. The body isn't below the mind and the spirit; from the point of view it's between them. if you reside too much in the mind, then you get too abstract and cut off from the world. You long for the spiritual life, but you can't get to it, and you fall into despair. The exercise of the senses frees you from abstraction and opens the way to transcendence.

  Jane Smiley

  Running, Spiritual, Fall

  Jane Smiley (2017). “Moo”, p.216, Pan Macmillan

  16 Copy quote

• I suspected that there were things he knew that I had been waiting all my life to learn.

  Jane Smiley

  Waiting

  Jane Smiley (2011). “A Thousand Acres: A Novel”, p.69, Anchor

  17 Copy quote

• Good intentions are wicked! As far as I can see, all they lead to are lies and delusions.

  Jane Smiley

  Lying, Wicked, Good Intentions

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

  4 Copy quote

• Write every day, just to keep in the habit, and remember that whatever you have written is neither as good nor as bad as you think it is. Just keep going, and tell yourself that you will fix it later.

  Jane Smiley

  Writing, Thinking, Remember

  4 Copy quote

• There is something I have noticed about desire, that it opens the eyes and strikes them blind at the same time.

  Jane Smiley

  Eye, Desire, Blind

  4 Copy quote

• Your sons weren't made to like you. That's what grandchildren are for.

  Jane Smiley

  Son, Grandchildren, Like You

  Jane Smiley (1991). “Ordinary Love and Good Will: Two Novellas”

  7 Copy quote

• The main thing about the novel that is totally fascinating: It's not possessed by the writer; it's possessed by the reader.

  Jane Smiley

  Novel, Reader, Fascinating

  Interview with Matthew Rothschild, www.sharedhost.progressive.org. December 4, 2007.

  7 Copy quote

• In every society, the artists will be the ones who set themselves up as contrary to whatever the society expects.

  Jane Smiley

  Artist, Contrary

  Interview with Matthew Rothschild, www.sharedhost.progressive.org. December 4, 2007.

  8 Copy quote

• Art doesn't exist if you just do what you're told. It only exists as an exercise of individual taste and freedom.

  Jane Smiley

  Art, Exercise, Taste

  Interview with Matthew Rothschild, www.sharedhost.progressive.org. December 4, 2007.

  6 Copy quote

• The desire to write a novel is the single required prerequisite for writing a novel.

  Jane Smiley

  Writing, Desire, Novel

  Jane Smiley (2008). “13 Ways of Looking at the Novel”, p.29, Anchor

  4 Copy quote

• I was depressed, but that was a side issue. This was more like closing up shop, or, say, having a big garage sale, where you look at everything you've bought in your life, and you remember how much it meant to you, and now you just tag it for a quarter and watch 'em carry it off, and you don't care. That's more like how it was.

  Jane Smiley

  Closing Up, Issues, Watches

  Jane Smiley (2011). “A Thousand Acres: A Novel”, p.58, Anchor

  9 Copy quote

• Even if my marriage is falling apart and my children are unhappy, there is still a part of me that says, 'God, this is fascinating!'

  Jane Smiley

  Children, Fall, Writing

  FaceBook post by Jane Smiley from Jan 11, 2012

  11 Copy quote

• With any novel that you begin, you can't foresee how difficult or easy it's going to be, and you can't really prepare yourself. You just have a take it one step at a time and know that it's all right to keep going - you can always fix it.

  Jane Smiley

  Steps, One Step At A Time, Easy

  5 Copy quote

• Take naps. Often new ideas come together when you are half asleep, but you have to train yourself to remember them.

  Jane Smiley

  Naps, Ideas, Together

  11 Copy quote

• I loved the house the way you would any new house, because it is populated by your future, the family of children who will fill it with noise or chaos and satisfying busy pleasures.

  Jane Smiley

  Children, House, Noise

  7 Copy quote

• Men are competent in groups that mimic the playground, incompetent in groups that mimic the family

  Jane Smiley

  Men, Groups, Playgrounds

  7 Copy quote

• Critical thinking is to a liberal education as faith is to religion. ... the converse was true also - faith is to a liberal education as critical thinking is to religion, irrelevant and even damaging.

  Jane Smiley

  Thinking, Critical, Liberal Education

  Jane Smiley (2017). “Moo”, p.24, Pan Macmillan

  5 Copy quote

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