But what truly horsey girls discover in the end is that boyfriends, husbands, children, and careers are the substitute-for horses — Jane Smiley Copy Share Image
Combined families often get bad reviews, but the family my children got when they traded away 'the suffocating four-person' nuclear one is… — 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 Anger Copy Share Image
I have reared, or helped to rear, five children and the scariest bit, bar none, is the learning-to-drive part. It has filled… — Jane Smiley Anxiety Copy Share Image
Mom was a smoker. My grandfather was a smoker. My aunts were smokers. My uncles were smokers. I don't know any smokers… — Jane Smiley Copy Share Image
“I had a burden lift off me that I hadn't even felt the heaviness of until then, and it was the burden… — Jane Smiley Burden Copy Share Image
Another thing I learned is that novels, even those from apparently distant times and places, remain current and enlightening, and also comforting. — Jane Smiley Copy Share Image
The thing about Republicans is that they don't care so much about respect, but they love fear, at least in others. — Jane Smiley Care 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 Autobiography 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
“She knew she had become the strange sort of lady that she remembered noticing as a child, the sort of lady who… — Jane Smiley Children Copy Share Image
There are hundreds of Frank Lloyd Wright buildings around the United States and in other countries, too. Wright lived into his 90s,… — 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 Daily life Copy Share Image
A reader's tastes are peculiar. Choosing books to read is like making your way down a remote and winding path. Your stops… — Jane Smiley Book Copy Share Image
You cannot be an egomaniac on the horse. If you lose your temper and start beating him, either you will destroy him,… — 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,… — Jane Smiley Copy Share Image
With preference came point of view; with point of view, personality; with personality, uniqueness; with uniqueness, grief. — Jane Smiley Aging Copy Share Image
Sometimes, a novel is like a train: the first chapter is a comfortable seat in an attractive carriage, and the narrative speeds… — Jane Smiley Copy Share Image
Is human nature basically good or evil? No economist can embark upon his profession without considering this question, and yet they all… — Jane Smiley Copy Share Image
Every novel deals with social problems. It can't help it because the protagonist must come in conflict with his group. So the… — Jane Smiley Analysis Copy Share Image
“The real mystery was how your farm bound you to it, so tightly that you would pay any price (literally, in interest)… — Jane Smiley Copy Share Image
One of the things that Ivar knew about Mrs. Walker was that she would only tell him what she knew if he… — Jane Smiley Copy Share Image
“She did not think it any coincidence that ideas denigrating literary authorship had taken center stage simultaneously with the emergence of formerly… — Jane Smiley Copy Share Image
I was asked by an editor to consider writing something about an American inventor. I asked him if he knew who invented… — 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 Books Copy Share Image
