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Another thing I learned is that novels, even those from apparently distant times and places, remain current and enlightening, and also comforting.

Jane Smiley

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Jane Smiley
Age: 75
Born: 1949
Born: January 1
Journalist
Literary Critic
Novelist
Screenwriter
Writer
LA
California
Jane Graves Smiley
Times
Distant
Another
Novels
Also
Current
Even
Currents
Thing
Remain
Places
Enlightening
Novel
Comforting
Learned
Apparently

More quotes by Jane Smiley

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Fascination with horses predated every other single thing I knew. Before I was a mother, before I was a writer, before I knew the facts of life, before I was a schoolgirl, before I learned to read, I wanted a horse.
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People with good intentions never give up!
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Because your goal is a complete rough draft of a novel, and every rough draft, by being complete, is perfect.
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Writing novels is an essentially amateur activity.
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I suspected that there were things he knew that I had been waiting all my life to learn.
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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.
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In every society, the artists will be the ones who set themselves up as contrary to whatever the society expects.
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Another thing he told his customers was that one of the great accounting unknowns of the modern age was how to value knowledge. It was an exciting field.
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A novelist is on the cusp between someone who knows everything and someone who knows nothing.
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Is human nature basically good or evil? No economist can embark upon his profession without considering this question, and yet they all seem to. And they all seem to think human nature is basically good, or they wouldn't be surprised by the effects of deregulation.
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A love story, at least a convincing one, requires three elements - the lover, the beloved, and the adventures they have together.
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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.
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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.
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it still astounds me, after forty years, that there is no good bread between Chicago and San Francisco.
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you know that the urge for revenge is a fact of marital life.
Jane Smiley
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Candy is my fuel. Ice cream, too.
Jane Smiley
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Respect and fear are two different things.
Jane Smiley
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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.
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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.
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I thought I might write mysteries for the rest of my life.
Jane Smiley