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
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.
people eccentric
People are quite frequently eccentric.
writing thinking remember
Write every day, just to keep in the habit, and remember that whatever you have written is neither as good nor as bad as you think it is. Just keep going, and tell yourself that you will fix it later.
ideas tolerance individuality
The novel as a form is usually seen to be moral if its readers consider freedom, individuality, democracy, privacy, social connection, tolerance and hope to be morally good, but it is not considered moral if the highest values of a society are adherence to rules and traditional mores, the maintenance of hierarchical relationships, and absolute ideas of right and wrong. Any society based on the latter will find novels inherently immoral and subversive.
perfect goal rough-drafts
Because your goal is a complete rough draft of a novel, and every rough draft, by being complete, is perfect.
philosophy order people
One of the profound effects of economics in our day is that the people with the money and the power have embraced the guilt-free, external-less, everything-will-turn-out-okay-in-the-end philosophy of economics in order to justify their own evil works. And the economists, for the most part, have sucked up to that money.
childhood fundamentals conditions
The fundamental condition of childhood is powerlessness.
giving-up people good-intentions
People with good intentions never give up!
teaching eye thinking
Giving his lecture for the third time freed Dr. Lionel Gift from paying much attention to it. He had a naturally expressive style of delivery, hones over the years in elementary-econ lecture halls. He knew, without even thinking, to address the middle rows of the hall, but to occasionally "shoot" the listeners in the back corners. He knew how to make eye contact and solicit the attention of those who were thinking of other things.
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.
names avid poetry
Charles Dickens was an avid seeker of names - he read directories and looked for odd names on gravestones.
favors farming farmers
How will you know a good farmer when you meet him? He will not ask you for any favors.
writing interesting people
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.