Jane Smiley Quotes

102 quotes in 1619 categories

• A love story, at least a convincing one, requires three elements - the lover, the beloved, and the adventures they have together.
• Somehow, knowing that Alzheimer's is coming mocks all one's aspirations - to tell stories, to think through certain issues as only a novel can do,…
• There are hundreds of Frank Lloyd Wright buildings around the United States and in other countries, too. Wright lived into his 90s, and one of…
• A theory of creativity is actually just a metaphor. A pool of ideas, a well of memories, a voice.
• An urban novelist never minds a little decay.
• As Fallingwater demonstrates, Wright's genius was always specific, but also always lively, always daring.
• Before I write a novel, images float around in my head that work like icons - they are meaningless in themselves, but serve as reminders.
• Eavesdrop and write it down from memory - gives you a stronger sense of how people talk and what their concerns are. I love to…
• Gossip. The more you talk about why people do things, the more ideas you have about how the world works.
• I don't know - is everything the U.S. does a shocking embarrassment?
• I think that the Cold War was an exceptional and unnecessary piece of cruelty.
• I thought I might write mysteries for the rest of my life.
• If to live is to progress, if you are lucky, from foolishness to wisdom, then to write novels is to broadcast the various stages of…
• In his 30 years of broadcasting and publishing fiction, Garrison Keillor has set the laugh bar pretty high.
• Sinclair Lewis may be ripe for a revival; his books raise several interesting issues of art and fashion.
• There can never be such a thing as a free market, because it is human nature to cheat, monopolize, and buy off others so as…
• I have reared, or helped to rear, five children and the scariest bit, bar none, is the learning-to-drive part. It has filled me with anxiety…
• I was asked by an editor to consider writing something about an American inventor. I asked him if he knew who invented the computer. He…
• I wrote the Dickens book because I loved Dickens, not because I felt a kinship with him, but after writing the book it seemed to…
• In December 1998, I considered myself an expert on love. I was almost a year into a relationship, one that had grown more slowly than…

Browse Jane Smiley Quotes by Category