My great fear is not that I'll run out of ideas. It's that I'll run out of time. — Jane Smiley Copy Share Image
A theory of creativity is actually just a metaphor. A pool of ideas, a well of memories, a voice. — Jane Smiley Copy Share Image
Take naps. Often new ideas come together when you are half asleep, but you have to train yourself to remember them. — 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
I readily admit it is easy to make of horses what we will. Silent, in some ways reserved, they allow us to… — Jane Smiley Copy Share Image
A child who is protected from all controversial ideas is as vulnerable as a child who is protected from every germ. The… — 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
You know what getting married is? It's agreeing to taking this person who right now is at the top of his form,… — Jane Smiley Copy Share Image
Gossip. The more you talk about why people do things, the more ideas you have about how the world works. — 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
