Quote

The essence of charity ... was not deciding what others needed and giving it to them, but giving them what they wanted.

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
Deciding
Charity
Essence
Needed
Others
Wanted
Giving

More quotes by Jane Smiley

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Candy is my fuel. Ice cream, too.
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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.
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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.
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But what truly horsey girls discover in the end is that boyfriends, husbands, children, and careers are the substitute-for horses
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Good intentions are wicked! As far as I can see, all they lead to are lies and delusions.
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The thing about Republicans is that they don't care so much about respect, but they love fear, at least in others.
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Not every novel that wants to be a tragedy gets to be one.
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Men are competent in groups that mimic the playground, incompetent in groups that mimic the family
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Respect and fear are two different things.
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Ignorance is a self-generating state of mind one of its characteristics is that it doesn't recognize itself as ignorance.
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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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The main thing about the novel that is totally fascinating: It's not possessed by the writer it's possessed by the reader.
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In my experience, there is only one motivation, and that is desire. No reasons or principle contain it or stand against it.
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Writing novels is an essentially amateur activity.
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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.
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Your sons weren't made to like you. That's what grandchildren are for.
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There are several methods for introducing your children to driving, and all of them are bad. Probably the worst is to put it off.
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Art doesn't exist if you just do what you're told. It only exists as an exercise of individual taste and freedom.
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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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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