A novelist is on the cusp between someone who knows everything and someone who knows nothing. Jane Smiley More Quotes by Jane Smiley More Quotes From Jane Smiley Because your goal is a complete rough draft of a novel, and every rough draft, by being complete, is perfect. Jane Smiley rough-draftsgoalperfect I have noticed before that there is a category of acquaintanceship that is not friendship or business or romance, but speculation, fascination. Jane Smiley categoriesfascinationromance Not every novel that wants to be a tragedy gets to be one. Jane Smiley noveltragedywant My great fear is not that I'll run out of ideas. It's that I'll run out of time. Jane Smiley runningideas My characters never die screaming in rage. They attempt to pull themselves back together and go on. And that's basically a conservative view of life. Jane Smiley survivalviewscharacter Writing novels is an essentially amateur activity. Jane Smiley activitynovelwriting Mom was a smoker. My grandfather was a smoker. My aunts were smokers. My uncles were smokers. I don't know any smokers now, not even my mom. Jane Smiley auntunclesmom I was an only child. I've known only children. From this experience, I do believe that the children should outnumber the parents. Jane Smiley parentbelievechildren Ignorance is a self-generating state of mind; one of its characteristics is that it doesn't recognize itself as ignorance. Jane Smiley ignoranceselfmind I had spent years thinking about one thing while I was doing another. I had, in fact, prided myself on being able to do two things at once. Jane Smiley twoyearsthinking With any novel that you begin, you can't foresee how difficult or easy it's going to be, and you can't really prepare yourself. You just have a take it one step at a time and know that it's all right to keep going - you can always fix it. Jane Smiley one-step-at-a-timeeasysteps If novels and stories are bulletins from the progressive states of ignorance a writer passes through over the years, observations and opinions about horses are all the more so, since horses are more mysterious than life and harder to understand. Jane Smiley horseignoranceyears A horse herd was, in its very essence, the manifestation of the expression 'It's always something. Jane Smiley horseessenceexpression it still astounds me, after forty years, that there is no good bread between Chicago and San Francisco. Jane Smiley san-franciscofoodyears How will you know a good farmer when you meet him? He will not ask you for any favors. Jane Smiley farmersfarmingfavors There is something I have noticed about desire, that it opens the eyes and strikes them blind at the same time. Jane Smiley blindeyedesire Trollope wrote so many novels and other works that they tend to crowd each other out. Jane Smiley crowdsnovel Good intentions are wicked! As far as I can see, all they lead to are lies and delusions. Jane Smiley good-intentionswickedlying When a novel has 200,000 words, then it is possible for the reader to experience 200,000 delights, and to turn back to the first page of the book and experience them all over again, perhaps more intensely. Jane Smiley delightpagesbook When I came home for the summer after my first year of college, I told my mother that my best friend and I were driving to California. She laughed out loud - 2,000 miles in a what? Well, my best friend had an old Chevy. What could go wrong? Jane Smiley mothersummerfriendship
