Talking, talking. Spinning a web of words, pale walls of dreams, between myself and all I see. — John Gardner Dreams Copy Share Image
“Good writers may “tell” about almost anything in fiction except the characters’ feelings.” — John Gardner Fiction Copy Share Image
“Mickelsson looked at her, surprised to discover that she was stupid.” — John Gardner Copy Share Image
“It was not always like this, of course. On occasion it's been worse.” — John Gardner Copy Share Image
“I was younger then. Still playing cat and mouse with the universe.” — John Gardner Cat and mouse Copy Share Image
“More people fail at becoming successful businessmen than fail at becoming artists.” — John Gardner Becoming successful Copy Share Image
“The people I've known who wanted to become writers, knowing what it meant, did become writers.” — John Gardner Learning Copy Share Image
“As a general rule, highly rational writers (like Nabokov) write most comfortably in the morning, and mainly intuitive writers write most comfortably… — John Gardner Morning Copy Share Image
“Yes! Clumly had thought. There it was. Whatever it meant, spiritualistic trash for old ladies or the roaring secret of life and… — John Gardner Death Copy Share Image
One should fight like the devil the temptation to think well of editors. They are all, without exception - at least some… — John Gardner Copy Share Image
To be human is inevitably, to hate oneself sometimes, to hunger for the perfect stability and in a way the perfect justice… — John Gardner Death Copy Share Image
Art Gropes. It stalks like a hunter lost in the woods, listening to itself and to everything around it, unsure of itself,… — John Gardner Art Copy Share Image
“That is their happiness: they see all life without observing it. They’re buried in it like crabs in mud. Except men, of… — John Gardner Copy Share Image
A nation that values bad philosophy above good plumbing will have neither good philosophy nor good plumbing — John Gardner Bad ideas Copy Share Image
Fiction does not spring into the world fully grown, like Athena. It is the process of writing and rewriting that makes a… — John Gardner Athena Copy Share Image
“The writer sensitive to language finds his own metaphors, not simply because he has been taught to avoid clichés but because he… — John Gardner Metaphor Copy Share Image
“It is for this reason that Aristotle recommends that the writer begin "in the middle of things" and fill in the exposition… — John Gardner Copy Share Image
“They only think they think. No total vision, total system, merely schemes with a vague family resemblance, no more identity than bridges… — John Gardner Dreams Copy Share Image
“A profound theme is of trifling importance if the characters knocked around by it are uninteresting, and brilliant technique is a nuisance… — John Gardner Copy Share Image
“I waited for him to find an answer. Minutes passed. It came to me that he had quit. He had glimpsed a… — John Gardner Mind Copy Share Image
“Theology does not thrive in the world of action and reaction, change: it grows on calm, like the scum on a stagnant… — John Gardner Action and reaction Copy Share Image
“He must shape simultaneously (in an expanding creative moment) his characters, plot, and setting, each inextricably connected to the others; he must… — John Gardner Character Copy Share Image
“Character is the very life of fiction. Setting exists only so that the character has someplace to stand. Plot exists so the… — John Gardner Character Copy Share Image
“Though we run across exceptions, philosophical novels where explanation holds interest, the temptation to explain is one that should almost always be… — John Gardner Communication Copy Share Image
“In any long fiction, Henry James remarked, use of the first-person point of view is barbaric. James may go too far, but… — John Gardner First person Copy Share Image
“No fiction can have real interest if the central character is not an agent struggling for his or her own goals but… — John Gardner Failure Copy Share Image
“It is the importance of this quality of generosity in fiction that requires a measure of childishness in the writer. People who… — John Gardner Childishness Copy Share Image
“There seems little or no hope for the adult writer who produces sentences like these: "Her cheeks were thick and smooth and… — John Gardner Hope Copy Share Image
“The conclusion suggests that he has used them rather than cared about them, much as a preacher uses old stories and straw… — John Gardner Wisdom Copy Share Image
“So, when I write a piece of fiction I select my characters and settings and so on because they have a bearing,… — John Gardner Philosophical Copy Share Image
“Another irritant is accidental rhyme, as in the sentence "When the rig blew, everything went flying sky-high--me too." Notice here that the… — John Gardner Copy Share Image
“My advice to you, my violent friend, is to seek out gold and sit on it.” — John Gardner Advice Copy Share Image
“Bad art is always basically creepy; that is its first and most obvious identifying sign” — John Gardner Art Copy Share Image
“Only very odd people don’t realize that truth-telling is always a relative value.” — John Gardner Copy Share Image
“one sign of a writer’s potential is his especially sharp ear—and eye—for language.” — John Gardner Language Copy Share Image
“The best way in the world for breaking up a writer's block is to write a lot.” — John Gardner Advice Copy Share Image
“True artists, whatever smiling faces they may show you, are obsessive, driven people—whether driven by some mania or driven by some high,… — John Gardner Art Copy Share Image
All order, I've come to understand, is theoretical, unreal, a harmless, sensible, smiling mask men slide between the two great, dark realities,… — John Gardner Illusion Copy Share Image
