Vets do what doctors used to - diagnose the injury or the condition, patch it up as best they can and remind you that these things happen and that in life we are also in the midst of death. Jane Smiley More Quotes by Jane Smiley More Quotes From Jane Smiley I have noticed before that there is a category of acquaintanceship that is not friendship or business or romance, but speculation, fascination. Jane Smiley categories fascination romance Not every novel that wants to be a tragedy gets to be one. Jane Smiley novel tragedy want My great fear is not that I'll run out of ideas. It's that I'll run out of time. Jane Smiley running ideas 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 survival views character Writing novels is an essentially amateur activity. Jane Smiley activity novel writing 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 aunt uncles mom 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 parent believe children Ignorance is a self-generating state of mind; one of its characteristics is that it doesn't recognize itself as ignorance. Jane Smiley ignorance self mind 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 two years thinking 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-time easy steps 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 horse ignorance years A horse herd was, in its very essence, the manifestation of the expression 'It's always something. Jane Smiley horse essence expression it still astounds me, after forty years, that there is no good bread between Chicago and San Francisco. Jane Smiley san-francisco food years How will you know a good farmer when you meet him? He will not ask you for any favors. Jane Smiley farmers farming favors There is something I have noticed about desire, that it opens the eyes and strikes them blind at the same time. Jane Smiley blind eye desire Trollope wrote so many novels and other works that they tend to crowd each other out. Jane Smiley crowds novel Good intentions are wicked! As far as I can see, all they lead to are lies and delusions. Jane Smiley good-intentions wicked lying 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 delight pages book 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 mother summer friendship Well, in fact everybody - everybody - in the entire nation has enough stuff in their life to write about that's interesting that they could write their autobiography. And in the end that's why I find people interesting. Jane Smiley writing people interesting
