Quotes by Jane Smiley

About Jane Smiley:

Jane Smiley is an American novelist. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1992 for her novel A Thousand Acres (1991).
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Eavesdrop and write it down from memory - gives you a stronger sense of how people talk and what their concerns are. I love to eavesdrop!

Jane Smiley

A child who is protected from all controversial ideas is as vulnerable as a child who is protected from every germ. The infection, when it comes- and it will come- may overwhelm the system, be it the immune system or the belief system.

Jane Smiley

Oh, that sound? I'm in the hot tub, reading a novel.

Jane Smiley

Your sons weren't made to like you. That's what grandchildren are for.

Jane Smiley

There are several methods for introducing your children to driving, and all of them are bad. Probably the worst is to put it off.

Jane Smiley

Sometimes, a novel is like a train: the first chapter is a comfortable seat in an attractive carriage, and the narrative speeds up. But there are other sorts of trains, and other sorts of novels. They rush by in the dark; passengers framed in the lig...

Jane Smiley

If American literature has a few heroes, Miller is one of them. He refused to name names at the McCarthy hearings, and his play 'The Crucible' analysed the hearings in the context of a previous American mass psychosis, the Salem witch trials.

Jane Smiley

An urban novelist never minds a little decay.

Jane Smiley

Ignorance and bloodlust have a long tradition in the United States, especially in the red states.

Jane Smiley

Another thing I learned is that novels, even those from apparently distant times and places, remain current and enlightening, and also comforting.

Jane Smiley

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 me that there was at least one similarity between us and that was that Dickens loved to write and wrote with the ease and...

Jane Smiley

A theory of creativity is actually just a metaphor. A pool of ideas, a well of memories, a voice.

Jane Smiley

There is a sociology of horses, as well as a psychology. It is most evident in the world of horse racing, where many horses are gathered together, where year after year, decade after decade, they do the same, rather simple thing - run in races and tr...

Jane Smiley

Candy is my fuel. Ice cream, too.

Jane Smiley

We sort of read two or three big newspapers but we don't get the flavor of the local events, the local news as much.

Jane Smiley

In many ways, being honest about 'Huckleberry Finn' goes right to the heart of whether we can be honest about our heritage and our identity as Americans.

Jane Smiley

Gossip. The more you talk about why people do things, the more ideas you have about how the world works.

Jane Smiley

Take naps. Often new ideas come together when you are half asleep, but you have to train yourself to remember them.

Jane Smiley

I gallop and jump and ride young horses with intense pleasure.

Jane Smiley

People are quite frequently eccentric.

Jane Smiley

It once amused me that it took me three tries to pass my driver's test and that my driving instructor told my mother that I was the least talented person behind the wheel that she had ever taught.

Jane Smiley

Author Bio

  • NameJane Smiley
  • DescriptionAmerican novelist
  • BornSeptember 26, 1949
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionWriter; Novelist