“He had glimpsed a glorious ideal, had struggled toward it and seized it and come to understand it, and was disappointed. One… — John Gardner Idealism Copy Share Image
Self pity is easily the most destructive of the non-pharmaceutical narcotics; it is addictive, gives momentary pleasure and separates the victim from… — John Gardner Addiction Copy Share Image
“Where the realist would say, "One day Gregor Samsa woke up to the realization that he was like a cockroach," the expressionist… — John Gardner Realist Copy Share Image
“In the town, children go down on their backs in the drifted snow and move their arms and, when they rise, leave… — John Gardner Children Copy Share Image
“Heidegger’s parlamblings on ‘Nothing’ and ‘Not’ and ‘the Nothing that Nothings’ were the last supposedly respectable gasp of classical philosophy.” — John Gardner Copy Share Image
Writing a novel is like heading out over the open sea in a small boat. It helps, if you have a plan… — John Gardner Copy Share Image
The citizen can bring our political and governmental institutions back to life, make them responsive and accountable, and keep them honest. No… — John Gardner Citizen Copy Share Image
“the chief offense in bad fiction: we sense that characters are being manipulated, forced to do things they would not really do.” — John Gardner Copy Share Image
“This highest kind of truth is never something the artist takes as given. It's not his point of departure but his goal.… — John Gardner Art Copy Share Image
We know that where community exists in confers upon its members identity, a sense of belonging, and a measure of security. .… — John Gardner Belonging Copy Share Image
“Because his art is such a difficult one, the writer is not likely to advance in the world as visibly as do… — john gardner Art Copy Share Image
A common and usually unfortunate answer is “Write about what you know.” Nothing can be more limiting to the imagination, nothing is… — John Gardner Imagination Copy Share Image
“Gilgamesh said to him, to Utnapishtim the remote, "What can I do, Utnapishtim? Where can I go? A thief has stolen my… — John Gardner Gilgamesh Copy Share Image
“The very qualities that make one a writer in the first place contribute to the block: hypersensitivity, stubbornness, insatiability, and so on.… — John Gardner First place Copy Share Image
“One of the things that should go into the writer's notebook is a set of experiments with the sentence. A convenient and… — John Gardner Writer Copy Share Image
“How, if I know all this, you may ask, could I hound him – shatter him again and again, drive him deeper… — John Gardner Kindness Copy Share Image
“Good writers may “tell” about almost anything in fiction except the characters’ feelings. One may tell the reader that the character went… — John Gardner Storytelling Copy Share Image
“A scene will not be vivid if the writer gives too few details to stir and guide the reader's imagination; neither will… — John Gardner Books Copy Share Image
“The shoddy writer wants only publication. He fails to recognize that almost anyone willing to devote between twelve and fourteen hours a… — John Gardner Books Copy Share Image
“A good writer is likely to know and use, or find out and use, the words for common architectural features, like "lintel,"… — John Gardner Family Copy Share Image
“Another bad cure is the sentence awkwardly stretched out by a "that" or "which" clause. For example, "Leaping from the couch he… — John Gardner Copy Share Image
“But she was beautiful and she surrendered herself with the dignity of a sacrificial virgin. My chest was full of pain, my… — John Gardner Beauty Copy Share Image
“I think there really is no other way to write a long, serious novel. You work, shelve it for a while, work,… — John Gardner Books Copy Share Image
“The writer's characters must stand before us with a wonderful clarity, such continuous clarity that nothing they do strikes us as improbable… — John Gardner Character Copy Share Image
“He was saner than anyone --had fallen out of the world of illusion: love, interesting work, hope for the future.” — John Gardner Hope for the future Copy Share Image
One must be just a little crazy to write a great novel. One must be capable of allowing the darkest, most ancient… — John Gardner Ancient Copy Share Image
The image-managers encourage the individual to fashion himself into a smooth coin, negotiable in any market. — John Gardner Business Copy Share Image
“A story is like a machine with numerous gears: it should contain no gear that doesn't turn something” — John Gardner Computers Copy Share Image
So childhood too feels good at first, before one happens to notice the terrible sameness, age after age. — John Gardner Age Copy Share Image
“Real suspense comes with moral dilemma and the courage to make and act upon choices. False suspense comes from the accidental and… — John Gardner Courage Copy Share Image
“We move through a course on Dostoevsky or Poe as we move through a mildly good cocktail party...Art...is less like a cocktail… — John Gardner Art Copy Share Image
The hero sees values beyond what's possible. That's the nature of a hero. It kills him, of course, ultimately. But it makes… — John Gardner Hero Copy Share Image
“Most creative-writing teachers have had the experience of occasionally helping to produce, by accident, a pornographer.” — John Gardner Creative writing Copy Share Image
One of the many interesting challenges nature presents us is its apparent disinterest in maintaining the order humans crave. — John Gardner Challenges Copy Share Image
“One cannot judge in advance whether or not the idea of the story is worthwhile because until one has finished writing the… — John Gardner Copy Share Image
“Shamash grant your wish. What your mouth has said, may your eyes see. May he open for you the barred path, unclose… — John Gardner Wish Copy Share Image
“In the final analysis, real suspense comes with moral dilemma and the courage to make and act upon choices. False suspense comes… — John Gardner Courage Copy Share Image
If there is good to be said, the writer should say it. If there is bad to be said, he should say… — John Gardner Life Copy Share Image
“Theoretically there's no reason one should get [writer's block], if one understands that writing, after all, is only writing, neither something one… — John Gardner Advice Copy Share Image
The true artist plays mad with his soul, labors at the very lip of the volcano, but remembers and clings to his… — John Gardner Art Copy Share Image
![“Theoretically there's no reason one should get [writer's block], if one understands that writing, after all, is only writing, neither something one ought to feel deeply guilty about nor something one ought to be inordinately proud of.” quote by John Gardner](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/8f0/john-gardner-3092_advice_theoretically-there-s-no-reason-one-shou_1625413.png)
