Explore Quotes by Jane Smiley

Sometimes, a novel is like a train: the first chapter is a comfortable seat in an attractive carriage, and the narrative speeds up. But there are other sorts of trains, and other sorts of novels. They rush by in the dark; passengers framed in the lighted windows are smiling and enjoying themselves.

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.

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.

There can never be such a thing as a free market, because it is human nature to cheat, monopolize, and buy off others so as to corner the market.

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.

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.

In his 30 years of broadcasting and publishing fiction, Garrison Keillor has set the laugh bar pretty high.

If to live is to progress, if you are lucky, from foolishness to wisdom, then to write novels is to broadcast the various stages of your foolishness.

We sort of read two or three big newspapers but we don't get the flavor of the local events, the local news as much.

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.

I thought I might write mysteries for the rest of my life.

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

Sinclair Lewis may be ripe for a revival; his books raise several interesting issues of art and fashion.

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

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

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

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!

An urban novelist never minds a little decay.

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

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.

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