Before I write a novel, images float around in my head that work like icons - they are meaningless in themselves, but serve as reminders. Jane Smiley More Quotes by Jane Smiley More Quotes From Jane Smiley An urban novelist never minds a little decay. Jane Smiley decay novelists mind A theory of creativity is actually just a metaphor. A pool of ideas, a well of memories, a voice. Jane Smiley creativity memories ideas There are hundreds of Frank Lloyd Wright buildings around the United States and in other countries, too. Wright lived into his 90s, and one of his most famous buildings, the Guggenheim Museum in New York, was completed just before his death. Wright buildings look like Wright buildings - that is their paradox. Jane Smiley new-york museums country Love is a general emotion. Marriage is exactingly specific. Jane Smiley emotion love-is I'm a natural novelist. I'm interested in the person and the group, and how they mesh. And one of the ways I don't want them to mesh is for the person to be subsumed into the group. Jane Smiley groups novelists want Oh, that sound? I'm in the hot tub, reading a novel. Jane Smiley reading sound hot All equestrians, if they last long enough, learn that riding in whatever form is a lifelong sport and art, an endeavor that is both familiar and new every time you take the horse out of his stall or pasture. Jane Smiley horse sports art you know that the urge for revenge is a fact of marital life. Jane Smiley revenge knows facts I love to write about sex. You just have to make it idiosyncratic. You have to have a strong comprehension of your characters, and write it from their point of view. It's really fun. It's not erotic. Jane Smiley strong fun sex Every novel deals with social problems. It can't help it because the protagonist must come in conflict with his group. So the author has to offer an analysis of how the group and the protagonist fit. Otherwise, the reader will just say, "This makes no sense," and will put it away. Jane Smiley groups analysis helping Progressivism is usually seen as a stepping back from individualism into a progressive community... Jane Smiley individualism progressive community There are five things that societies do: They reproduce; they produce food; they organize themselves in terms of law; they organize themselves in terms of belief; and they make art. Four of them are about conformity, and in these, everything would go more smoothly if people just would shut up and do what they're told. But in art it doesn't work that way. Jane Smiley law people art I spent part of my college years in a Marxist commune. I was not a Marxist. I wasn't even pretending to be one. I was a Marxist-in-law. Jane Smiley college law years 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 name literature trials play I gallop and jump and ride young horses with intense pleasure. Jane Smiley jump ride pleasure young 'Lean on Pete' is the story of a boy and his horse, but it is never heart-warming - it ranges in tone from desperate to merely painful - and, while fascinating, it is never entertaining or redemptive. But if you want an unadorned portrait of American life (at least in some places) at the beginning of the 21st century, this is the book for you. Jane Smiley beginning you life book The main thing about the novel that is totally fascinating: It's not possessed by the writer; it's possessed by the reader. Jane Smiley fascinating novel reader
