Jane Smiley Quotes

Your sons weren't made to like you. That's what grandchildren are for.
Jane Smiley

Made, Weren, Sons

A child who is protected from all controversial ideas is as vulnerable as a child who is protected from every germ. The infection, when it comes- and it will come- may overwhelm the system, be it the immune system or the belief system.
Jane Smiley

May, Child, Ideas

Oh, that sound? I'm in the hot tub, reading a novel.
Jane Smiley

Reading, Hot, Sound

A love story, at least a convincing one, requires three elements - the lover, the beloved, and the adventures they have together.
Jane Smiley

Love, Together, Story

A theory of creativity is actually just a metaphor. A pool of ideas, a well of memories, a voice.
Jane Smiley

Creativity, Actually, Memories

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.
Jane Smiley

Time, Art, Long

An urban novelist never minds a little decay.
Jane Smiley

Minds, Urban, Decay

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

Learned, Another, Times

'Ape House' is an ambitious novel in several ways, for which it is to be admired, and it is certainly an easy read, but because Gruen is not quite prepared for the philosophical implications of her subject, it is not as deeply involving emotionally or as interesting thematically as it could be.
Jane Smiley

Her, Easy, Read

As Fallingwater demonstrates, Wright's genius was always specific, but also always lively, always daring.
Jane Smiley

Genius, Daring, Lively

Before I write a novel, images float around in my head that work like icons - they are meaningless in themselves, but serve as reminders.
Jane Smiley

Work, Before, Around

Candy is my fuel. Ice cream, too.
Jane Smiley

Ice, Candy, Fuel

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.
Jane Smiley

Family, Bad, Children

Eavesdrop and write it down from memory - gives you a stronger sense of how people talk and what their concerns are. I love to eavesdrop!
Jane Smiley

Love, Down, Sense

English majors understand human nature better than economists do.
Jane Smiley

Nature, Human, Understand

Gossip. The more you talk about why people do things, the more ideas you have about how the world works.
Jane Smiley

Gossip, Why, Talk

I discovered that the horse is life itself, a metaphor but also an example of life's mystery and unpredictability, of life's generosity and beauty, a worthy object of repeated and ever changing contemplation.
Jane Smiley

Life, Beauty, Horse

I don't know - is everything the U.S. does a shocking embarrassment?
Jane Smiley

Everything, Shocking

I gallop and jump and ride young horses with intense pleasure.
Jane Smiley

Young, Pleasure, Jump

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

Thinking, Two, Another

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.
Jane Smiley

Children, Self, Friends

I learned why 'out riding alone' is an oxymoron: An equestrian is never alone, is always sensing the other being, the mysterious but also understandable living being that is the horse.
Jane Smiley

Alone, Living, Why

I loved the house the way you would any new house, because it is populated by your future, the family of children who will fill it with noise or chaos and satisfying busy pleasures.
Jane Smiley

Family, Future, Children

I readily admit it is easy to make of horses what we will. Silent, in some ways reserved, they allow us to train them, and to project our ideas upon them; to ride and drive them, and to make them symbolic, perhaps to a greater degree than any other species.
Jane Smiley

Easy, Silent, Ideas

I think that the Cold War was an exceptional and unnecessary piece of cruelty.
Jane Smiley

War, Cold, Piece

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Biography

Nationality: American

Type: Writer

Born: September 26, 1949

Links

Find on Amazon: Jane Smiley

Cite this Page: Citation

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