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In every society, the artists will be the ones who set themselves up as contrary to whatever the society expects.

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
Expects
Contrary
Artists
Ones
Whatever
Society
Artist
Every

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Respect and fear are two different things.
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A novelist is on the cusp between someone who knows everything and someone who knows nothing.
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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.
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I don't know - is everything the U.S. does a shocking embarrassment?
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English majors understand human nature better than economists do.
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I was an only child. I've known only children. From this experience, I do believe that the children should outnumber the parents.
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The brave view is that talking it out helps work it out. Maybe the realistic view is that talking it out inflames the issues further. But that is America, especially these days.
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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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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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you know that the urge for revenge is a fact of marital life.
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Candy is my fuel. Ice cream, too.
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My mom was paranoid about my safety.
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Novelists never have to footnote.
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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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Good intentions are wicked! As far as I can see, all they lead to are lies and delusions.
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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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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.
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Twenty-five, he was. Twenty-five tomorrow. Some years the snow had melted for his birthday, but not this year, and so it had been a long winter full of cows.
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Even if my marriage is falling apart and my children are unhappy, there is still a part of me that says, 'God, this is fascinating!'
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Why are we reading a Shakespeare play or 'Huckleberry Finn?' Well, because these works are great, but they also tell us something about the times in which they were created. Unfortunately, previous eras and dead authors often used language or accepted as normal sentiments that we now find unacceptable.
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