One should fight like the devil the temptation to think well of editors. They are all, without exception - at least some… — John Gardner Crazy 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
“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
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
“Mickelsson looked at her, surprised to discover that she was stupid.” — John Gardner 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
“Yes! Clumly had thought. There it was. Whatever it meant, spiritualistic trash for old ladies or the roaring secret of life and… — John Gardner Death Copy Share Image
“Most creative-writing teachers have had the experience of occasionally helping to produce, by accident, a pornographer.” — John Gardner Mentorship 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
So childhood too feels good at first, before one happens to notice the terrible sameness, age after age. — John Gardner Age 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
“Where the realist would say, "One day Gregor Samsa woke up to the realization that he was like a cockroach," the expressionist… — John Gardner 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
“It is the importance of this quality of generosity in fiction that requires a measure of childishness in the writer. People who… — John Gardner Fame and fortune 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
“Like other kinds of intelligence, the storyteller's is partly natural, partly trained. It is composed of several qualities, most of which, in… — John Gardner Dirty joke 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
“I waited for him to find an answer. Minutes passed. It came to me that he had quit. He had glimpsed a… — John Gardner 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, when I write a piece of fiction I select my characters and settings and so on because they have a bearing,… — John Gardner Philosophy 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
“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
“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
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
“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
