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
“More people fail at becoming successful businessmen than fail at becoming artists.” — John Gardner Becoming successful Copy Share Image
“The people I've known who wanted to become writers, knowing what it meant, did become writers.” — John Gardner Learning 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
“Mickelsson looked at her, surprised to discover that she was stupid.” — John Gardner Copy Share Image
“I was younger then. Still playing cat and mouse with the universe.” — John Gardner Cat and mouse 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 Manipulated Copy Share Image
Talking, talking. Spinning a web of words, pale walls of dreams, between myself and all I see. — John Gardner Dreams 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
“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
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
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
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
“He must shape simultaneously (in an expanding creative moment) his characters, plot, and setting, each inextricably connected to the others; he must… — John Gardner Character Copy Share Image
“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
All order, I've come to understand, is theoretical, unreal, a harmless, sensible, smiling mask men slide between the two great, dark realities,… — John Gardner Illusion Copy Share Image
I know everything, you see,' the old voice wheedled. 'The beginning, the present, the end. Everything. You now, you see the past… — John Gardner All time 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
“One cannot judge in advance whether or not the idea of the story is worthwhile because until one has finished writing the… — John Gardner First-draft 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
“Character is the very life of fiction. Setting exists only so that the character has someplace to stand. Plot exists so the… — John Gardner Life Copy Share Image
“So, when I write a piece of fiction I select my characters and settings and so on because they have a bearing,… — John Gardner Philosophical Copy Share Image
“As in the universe every atom has an effect, however minuscule, on every other atom, so that to pinch the fabric of… — John Gardner Character Copy Share Image
“He could never forgive her for "cheating" on his father. His words, not hers. A child's word. "Selfish bitch," he'd called her… — John Gardner Children Copy Share Image
“O the ultimate evil in the temporal world is deeper than any specific evil, such as hatred, or suffering, or death! The… — John Gardner Death Copy Share Image
“When a writer first begins to write, he or she feels the same first thrill of achievement that the young gambler or… — John Gardner Adventure Copy Share Image
“The instruction here is not for every kind of writer - not for the writer of nurse books or thrillers or porno… — John Gardner Authors 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
“There seems little or no hope for the adult writer who produces sentences like these: "Her cheeks were thick and smooth and… — John Gardner Hope Copy Share Image
“In writing short stories—as in writing novels—take one thing at a time. (For some writers, this advice I'm giving may apply best… — John Gardner Short stories Copy Share Image
“Theme is not imposed on the story but evoke from within it--initally an intuitive but finally an intellectual act on the part… — John Gardner Storytelling Copy Share Image
“Except in stock locutions, such as "You were paid yesterday," "The Germans were defeated," or "The project was abandoned," the passive voice… — John Gardner Bad writing 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
“The age old idea of human dignity comes to apply even to the indigent, even to the slaves, even to immigrants, now… — John Gardner Art Copy Share Image
Nothing can be more limiting to the imagination than only writing about what you know — John Gardner Imagination Copy Share Image
A nation that values bad philosophy above good plumbing will have neither good philosophy nor good plumbing — John Gardner Bad ideas Copy Share Image
“[the writer] must copy, with his finite mind, the process of the infinite 'I AM.” — John Gardner Character development Copy Share Image
“All to often, on the long road up, young leaders become servants of what is rather than shapers of what might be.” — John Gardner Conformity Copy Share Image
When I was a child I truly loved: Unthinking love as calm and deep As the North Sea. But I have lived,… — John Gardner Calm Copy Share Image
![“[the writer] must copy, with his finite mind, the process of the infinite 'I AM.” quote by John Gardner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/10b/john-gardner-3092_character-developmen_the-writer-must-copy-with-his-finite-min_889329.jpg)
