“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 Copy Share Image
One should fight like the devil the temptation to think well of editors. They are all, without exception - at least some… — John Gardner 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 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 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 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 Copy Share Image
One must be just a little crazy to write a great novel. One must be capable of allowing the darkest, most ancient… — John Gardner Copy Share Image
By the time you've run your mind through it a hundred times, relentlessly worked out every tic of terror, it's lost its… — John Gardner Copy Share Image
“As in the universe every atom has an effect, however miniscule, on every other atom, so that to pinch the fabric of… — John Gardner Copy Share Image
“He was saner than anyone --had fallen out of the world of illusion: love, interesting work, hope for the future.” — John Gardner Copy Share Image
“Sometimes when one cannot stand the story or novel one is working on, it helps to write something else—a different story or… — John Gardner 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 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, And now… — John Gardner Copy Share Image
“They only think they think. No total vision, total system, merely schemes with a vague family resemblance, no more identity than bridges and, say,… — John Gardner 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 is virtually… — John Gardner Copy Share Image
“The instruction here is not for every kind of writer - not for the writer of nurse books or thrillers or porno or the… — John Gardner 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 to a… — John Gardner 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 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 held a… — John Gardner Copy Share Image
“In any long fiction, Henry James remarked, use of the first-person point of view is barbaric. James may go too far, but his point… — John Gardner Copy Share Image
Nothing can be more limiting to the imagination than only writing about what you know — John Gardner Copy Share Image
A nation that values bad philosophy above good plumbing will have neither good philosophy nor good plumbing — John Gardner 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 one else… — John Gardner Copy Share Image
