I suspected that there were things he knew that I had been waiting all my life to learn. — 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
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
Many said that now there was no hope of salvation, for a man might do anything and be in the wrong. There… — Jane Smiley Copy Share Image
Well, in fact everybody - everybody - in the entire nation has enough stuff in their life to write about that's interesting… — Jane Smiley Copy Share Image
Fascination with horses predated every other single thing I knew. Before I was a mother, before I was a writer, before I… — Jane Smiley Copy Share Image
The body, the mind, and the spirit don't form a pyramid, they form a circle. Each of them runs into the other… — Jane Smiley Copy Share Image
After a long day, folk rest at night. After a long summer, folk play games and sit about in the winter. After… — Jane Smiley Copy Share Image
I was depressed, but that was a side issue. This was more like closing up shop, or, say, having a big garage… — 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
Vets do what doctors used to - diagnose the injury or the condition, patch it up as best they can and remind… — Jane Smiley Copy Share Image
“Laura's gossip was redeemed by its lack of spite. She was warmly objective about every event, taking endless delight in action and… — 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
'Lean on Pete' is the story of a boy and his horse, but it is never heart-warming - it ranges in tone… — Jane Smiley Copy Share Image
My characters never die screaming in rage. They attempt to pull themselves back together and go on. And that's basically a conservative… — Jane Smiley Copy Share Image
Some people do wait their whole lives for something, and it's only when that thing arrives that they find out that they've… — Jane Smiley Copy Share Image
I discovered that the horse is life itself, a metaphor but also an example of life's mystery and unpredictability, of life's generosity… — Jane Smiley Copy Share Image
“...I had been with my father so constantly for so long that I knew less and less about him with every passing… — Jane Smiley Copy Share Image
“Every first draft is perfect because all the first draft has to do is exist. It's perfect in its existence. The only… — Jane Smiley Copy Share Image
A novelist has two lives-- a reading and writing life, and a lived life. he or she cannot be understood at all… — 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
