“Mickelsson looked at her, surprised to discover that she was stupid.” — John Gardner Stupid Copy Share Image
“it’s a law of the universe that 87 percent of all people in all professions are incompetent.” — John Gardner Incompetent 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
“It's not easy to kill a mountain goat. He thinks with his spine.” — John Gardner Grendel Copy Share Image
Nothing can be more limiting to the imagination than only writing about what you know — John Gardner Imagination Copy Share Image
“Talking, talking, spinning like a spell, pale skin of words that closes me in like a coffin.” — John Gardner Coffin Copy Share Image
“We move through a course on Dostoevsky or Poe as we move through a mildly good cocktail party...Art...is less like a cocktail… — John Gardner Art Copy Share Image
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
“In the town, children go down on their backs in the drifted snow and move their arms and, when they rise, leave… — John Gardner Children 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
“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
“Heidegger’s parlamblings on ‘Nothing’ and ‘Not’ and ‘the Nothing that Nothings’ were the last supposedly respectable gasp of classical philosophy.” — John Gardner Heidegger Copy Share Image
Writing a novel is like heading out over the open sea in a small boat. It helps, if you have a plan… — John Gardner Boat Copy Share Image
Fiction does not spring into the world fully grown, like Athena. It is the process of writing and rewriting that makes a… — John Gardner Athena Copy Share Image
“Theoretically there's no reason one should get [writer's block], if one understands that writing, after all, is only writing, neither something one… — John Gardner Advice 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
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
“This highest kind of truth is never something the artist takes as given. It's not his point of departure but his goal.… — John Gardner Art 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 Character 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
“Because his art is such a difficult one, the writer is not likely to advance in the world as visibly as do… — john gardner Art Copy Share Image
“Gilgamesh said to him, to Utnapishtim the remote, "What can I do, Utnapishtim? Where can I go? A thief has stolen my… — John Gardner Gilgamesh 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
“True artists, whatever smiling faces they may show you, are obsessive, driven people--whether driven by some mania or driven by some high,… — John Gardner Art 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
“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
“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
“But she was beautiful and she surrendered herself with the dignity of a sacrificial virgin. My chest was full of pain, my… — John Gardner Beauty Copy Share Image
“Another bad cure is the sentence awkwardly stretched out by a "that" or "which" clause. For example, "Leaping from the couch he… — John Gardner Cure Sentence 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
“But dragons, my boy, have a whole different kind of mind.” — John Gardner Different Copy Share Image
“Not everyone is capable of writing junk fiction: It requires an authentic junk mind.” — John Gardner Psychology Copy Share Image
“The world is all pointless accident... I exist, nothing else.” — John Gardner Exist Copy Share Image
“I know what's in your mind. I know everything. That's what makes me so sick and old and tired.” — John Gardner Psychology Copy Share Image
Great things happen nationally when topmost leadership is goaded and supported from below. — John Gardner Great things Copy Share Image
“That is their happiness: they see all life without observing it. They’re buried in it like crabs in mud. Except men, of… — John Gardner Buried Copy Share Image
Art Gropes. It stalks like a hunter lost in the woods, listening to itself and to everything around it, unsure of itself,… — John Gardner Art 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)
![“Theoretically there's no reason one should get [writer's block], if one understands that writing, after all, is only writing, neither something one ought to feel deeply guilty about nor something one ought to be inordinately proud of.” quote by John Gardner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/8f0/john-gardner-3092_advice_theoretically-there-s-no-reason-one-shou_1625413.jpg)
