Jane Smiley
Jane Smiley
Jane Smileyis an American novelist. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1992 for her novel A Thousand Acres...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth26 September 1949
CityLos Angeles, CA
CountryUnited States of America
perfect goal rough-drafts
Because your goal is a complete rough draft of a novel, and every rough draft, by being complete, is perfect.
childhood fundamentals conditions
The fundamental condition of childhood is powerlessness.
giving-up people good-intentions
People with good intentions never give up!
life summer winter
After a long day, folk rest at night. After a long summer, folk play games and sit about in the winter. After a long life folk sit about the fire and stay warm, for the chill of death is upon them, and even the thickest bearskin can't keep off the shivering.
food years san-francisco
it still astounds me, after forty years, that there is no good bread between Chicago and San Francisco.
favors farming farmers
How will you know a good farmer when you meet him? He will not ask you for any favors.
ears hungry
Hungry ears are sharp ones.
children nuclear four
Combined families often get bad reviews, but the family my children got when they traded away 'the suffocating four-person' nuclear one is one that has benefited all of them.
writing might mystery
I thought I might write mysteries for the rest of my life.
war thinking pieces
I think that the Cold War was an exceptional and unnecessary piece of cruelty.
reading tubs sound
Oh, that sound? I'm in the hot tub, reading a novel.
sports art horse
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.
self talking agony
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.
thinking two years
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.