Horse racing is really much more intimidating than anything having to do with literature. When I had horses at the racetrack, I… — Jane Smiley Copy Share Image
When 'The Awakening' was published it was considered so scandalous it was banned in the author's home-town library, and she herself was… — Jane Smiley Copy Share Image
Many people, myself among them, feel better at the mere sight of a book. — Jane Smiley Copy Share Image
In the traditional urban novel, there is only survival or not. The suburban idea, the conformist idea, that agony can be seen… — Jane Smiley Copy Share Image
The novel as a form is usually seen to be moral if its readers consider freedom, individuality, democracy, privacy, social connection, tolerance… — Jane Smiley Copy Share Image
Literature - novels, plays, and poems - can have an uncanny dual life, where they simultaneously represent something eternal and something historical,… — Jane Smiley Copy Share Image
'Ape House' is an ambitious novel in several ways, for which it is to be admired, and it is certainly an easy… — Jane Smiley Copy Share Image
Sometimes, a novel is like a train: the first chapter is a comfortable seat in an attractive carriage, and the narrative speeds… — Jane Smiley Copy Share Image
“In her minds eye she sat there, in the domesticated golden sunlight on the velvet sofa, lapped around by carpets and books… — Jane Smiley Copy Share Image
If American literature has a few heroes, Miller is one of them. He refused to name names at the McCarthy hearings, and… — Jane Smiley Copy Share Image
Trollope wrote so many novels and other works that they tend to crowd each other out. — Jane Smiley Copy Share Image
Another thing I learned is that novels, even those from apparently distant times and places, remain current and enlightening, and also comforting. — Jane Smiley Copy Share Image
“If living is to progress, if you are lucky, from foolishness to wisdom, then to write novels is to broadcast the various… — Jane Smiley Copy Share Image
The desire to write a novel is the single required prerequisite for writing a novel. — Jane Smiley Copy Share Image
a bookstore is one of the few places where all the cantankerous, conflicting, alluring voices of the world co-exist in peace and… — Jane Smiley Copy Share Image
Sinclair Lewis may be ripe for a revival; his books raise several interesting issues of art and fashion. — Jane Smiley Copy Share Image
If novels and stories are bulletins from the progressive states of ignorance a writer passes through over the years, observations and opinions… — Jane Smiley Copy Share Image
“The novel is, above all, an intense experience of prolonged intimacy with another consciousness.” — Jane Smiley Copy Share Image
A reader's tastes are peculiar. Choosing books to read is like making your way down a remote and winding path. Your stops… — Jane Smiley Copy Share Image
Before I write a novel, images float around in my head that work like icons - they are meaningless in themselves, but… — Jane Smiley Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
'The Good Soldier' is an odd and maybe even unique book. That it is a masterpiece, almost a perfect novel, comes as… — Jane Smiley Copy Share Image
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… — Jane Smiley Copy Share Image
I was asked by an editor to consider writing something about an American inventor. I asked him if he knew who invented… — Jane Smiley Copy Share Image
Some novelists are luckier than others in the eras of their formative intellectual years, but all Weltanschauungs return, which means that most novelists have… — Jane Smiley Copy Share Image
There can never be such a thing as a free market, because it is human nature to cheat, monopolize, and buy off others so… — Jane Smiley Copy Share Image
The only siblings I have are half-siblings. My nuclear family would have been an extra-suffocating threesome. Instead, I have an interesting brother and sister,… — Jane Smiley Copy Share Image
How will you know a good farmer when you meet him? He will not ask you for any favors. — Jane Smiley Copy Share Image
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… — Jane Smiley Copy Share Image
Every first draft is perfect, because all a first draft has to do is exist. — Jane Smiley Copy Share Image
“We watched the swimmers and sunbathers and I thought about this. Had I faced all the facts? It seemed like I had, but actually,… — Jane Smiley Copy Share Image
“They throw themselves on the waters of the world, and they know they will be borne up.” — Jane Smiley Copy Share Image
everything is toxic. That's the point. You can't avoid toxins. Thinking you can is just another symptom of the toxic overload stage. — Jane Smiley Copy Share Image
“Shame is a distinct feeling. I couldn’t look at my hands around the coffee cup or hear my own laments without feeling appalled, wanting… — Jane Smiley Copy Share Image
“She could not have created this moment, these lovely faces, these candles flickering, the flash of the silverware, the fragrances of the food hanging… — Jane Smiley Copy Share Image
Horse racing is really much more intimidating than anything having to do with literature. When I had horses at the racetrack, I would wake… — Jane Smiley Copy Share Image
