“More people fail at becoming successful businessmen than fail at becoming artists.” — John Gardner Becoming successful Copy Share Image
To be human is inevitably, to hate oneself sometimes, to hunger for the perfect stability and in a way the perfect justice… — John Gardner Death Copy Share Image
“As a general rule, highly rational writers (like Nabokov) write most comfortably in the morning, and mainly intuitive writers write most comfortably… — John Gardner Morning Copy Share Image
“The very qualities that make one a writer in the first place contribute to the block: hypersensitivity, stubbornness, insatiability, and so on.… — John Gardner First place Copy Share Image
“Writer's block comes from the feeling that one is doing the wrong thing or doing the right thing badly. Fiction written for… — John Gardner Art Copy Share Image
“Nothing is sillier than the creative writing teacher's dictum "Write about what you know." But whether you're writing about people or dragons,… — John Gardner Creative writing 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
“one sign of a writer’s potential is his especially sharp ear—and eye—for language.” — John Gardner Language Copy Share Image
“He could forget all these people, just like that, become fond again of strangers and leave them too.” — John Gardner 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
“Theology does not thrive in the world of action and reaction, change: it grows on calm, like the scum on a stagnant… — John Gardner Action and reaction 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
“It was said in the old days that every year Thor made a circle around Middle-earth, beating back the enemies of order.… — John Gardner Chaos Copy Share Image
“The question one asks of the young writer who wants to know if he's got what it takes is this: "Is writing… — John Gardner Novelist Copy Share Image
“One of the things that should go into the writer's notebook is a set of experiments with the sentence. A convenient and… — John Gardner Writing 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
“Bad art is always basically creepy; that is its first and most obvious identifying sign” — John Gardner Art Copy Share Image
“What the best fiction does is make powerful affirmations of familiar truths...the trivial fiction which times filters out is that which either… — John Gardner Strong emotions 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 Ancient 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
“One has to be just a little crazy to write a great novel. One must be capable of allowing the darkest, most… — john gardner Books Copy Share Image
“all writers, given adequate technique—technique that communicates—can stir our interest in their special subject matter, since at heart all fiction treats, directly… — John Gardner Fear 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
“No fiction can have real interest if the central character is not an agent struggling for his or her own goals but… — John Gardner Failure Copy Share Image
