Yet—some Frenchman had written—“absence diminishes…

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

— Diane Johnson

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…

— Diane Johnson

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

— Diane Johnson

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

— Diane Johnson

Glenda Adams has written a wicked and witty novel.

— Diane Johnson

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

— Diane Johnson

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

— Diane Johnson

“Men are generally more law-abiding than women. Women have the feeling that since they didn't make the rules, the rules have nothing to do…

— Diane Johnson

“Well, their piety is more evolved,” said Mrs. Pace. “In America we have only two forms, as Matthew Arnold said: the bitter and the…

— Diane Johnson

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

— Diane Johnson

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

— Diane Johnson

“It didn't seem fair that you could not prevent being the object of other people's emotions, you were not safe from their hate--or from…

— Diane Johnson

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

— Diane Johnson

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

But novels are never about what they are about; that is, there is always deeper, or more general, significance. The author may not be…

— Diane Johnson