I have reared, or helped to rear, five children and the scariest bit, bar none, is the learning to drive part. It has filled me with anxiety not only about the children, but also about my former self and my friends. Jane Smiley More Quotes by Jane Smiley More Quotes From Jane Smiley A reader's tastes are peculiar. Choosing books to read is like making your way down a remote and winding path. Your stops on that path are always idiosyncratic. One book leads to another and another the way one thought leads to another and another. My type of reader is the sort who burrows through the stacks in the bookstore or the library (or the Web site — stacks are stacks), yielding to impulse and instinct. Jane Smiley library peculiar book 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 heritage identity heart Novelists of a conservative or more purely aesthetic bent hold up better on the surface, but their novels go in and out of fashion according to relevance or irrelevance. Jane Smiley irrelevance novelists fashion Some novelists are luckier than others in the eras of their formative intellectual years, but all Weltanschauungs return, which means that most novelists have at least a chance of a revival. Jane Smiley intellectual mean years When 'The Awakening' was published it was considered so scandalous it was banned in the author's home-town library, and she herself was barred from the Fine Arts Club in the same city. What the novel has to offer, among other things, is honesty. Jane Smiley honesty home art Why are we reading a Shakespeare play or 'Huckleberry Finn?' Well, because these works are great, but they also tell us something about the times in which they were created. Unfortunately, previous eras and dead authors often used language or accepted as normal sentiments that we now find unacceptable. Jane Smiley eras reading play Like most of the educated, I do harbor a fondness for the sins of my ignorant past. Jane Smiley ignorant sin past The fundamental condition of childhood is powerlessness. Jane Smiley conditions childhood fundamentals In the traditional urban novel, there is only survival or not. The suburban idea, the conformist idea, that agony can be seen to and cured by doctors or psychoanalysis or self-knowledge is nowhere to be found in the city. Talking is a way of life, but it is not a cure. Same with religion. Jane Smiley doctors self talking Hungry ears are sharp ones. Jane Smiley hungry ears 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 introducing driving children 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 try to win. Jane Smiley horse winning running Your sons weren't made to like you. That's what grandchildren are for. Jane Smiley grandchildren like-you son Another thing I learned is that novels, even those from apparently distant times and places, remain current and enlightening, and also comforting. Jane Smiley enlightening currents comforting English majors understand human nature better than economists do. Jane Smiley economist human-nature humans I discovered that the horse is life itself, a metaphor but also an example of life's mystery and unpredictability, of life's generosity and beauty, a worthy object of repeated and ever changing contemplation. Jane Smiley generosity horse example A love story, at least a convincing one, requires three elements - the lover, the beloved, and the adventures they have together. Jane Smiley three together adventure Somehow, knowing that Alzheimer's is coming mocks all one's aspirations - to tell stories, to think through certain issues as only a novel can do, to be recognised for one's accomplishments and hard work - in a way that old familiar death does not. Jane Smiley alzheimers hard-work thinking A novelist is on the cusp between someone who knows everything and someone who knows nothing. Jane Smiley cusp novelists knows Most of my childhood revolved around wondering when we would be blown up by the Russians. I couldn't stand the news, I knew that if the missile were launched, mortality would arrive in half an hour, so I spent a lot of my childhood feeling that I was 30 minutes from being dead. Jane Smiley childhood would-be feelings
