When a novel has 200,000 words, then it is possible for the reader to experience 200,000 delights, and to turn back to the first page of the book and experience them all over again, perhaps more intensely.
Jane SmileyRead
I say, when your hair turns gray and your children think they know who you are, do the thing that shakes up who you think you are, even who you had prided yourself on being. When all those around you say they simply don't recognize you any longer, that's the real compliment.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Embrace change and challenge your identity, especially as you age.
This quote by Jane Smiley emphasizes the importance of personal transformation and evolving one's identity throughout life. It suggests that true growth comes when we are willing to shake up our established self-perception and redefine who we are, even if it surprises those around us, serving as a testament to our courage and willingness to embrace change.
Themes
ChangeIdentityPersonal GrowthTransformationAging
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational talk about embracing life's changes, this quote can inspire listeners to welcome new experiences.
More from Jane Smiley
All quotes →Not every novel that wants to be a tragedy gets to be one.
Jane SmileyRead
When I went to first grade and the other children said that their fathers were farmers, I simply didn't believe them. I agreed in order to be polite, but in my heart I knew that those men were impostors, as farmers and as fathers, too. In my youthful estimation, Laurence Cook defined both categories. To really believe that others even existed in either category was to break the First Commandment.
Jane SmileyRead
I was depressed, but that was a side issue. This was more like closing up shop, or, say, having a big garage sale, where you look at everything you've bought in your life, and you remember how much it meant to you, and now you just tag it for a quarter and watch 'em carry it off, and you don't care. That's more like how it was.
Jane SmileyRead
Somehow, knowing that Alzheimer's is coming mocks all one's aspirations - to tell stories, to think through certain issues as only a novel can do, to be recognised for one's accomplishments and hard work - in a way that old familiar death does not.
Jane SmileyRead
The novel as a form is usually seen to be moral if its readers consider freedom, individuality, democracy, privacy, social connection, tolerance and hope to be morally good, but it is not considered moral if the highest values of a society are adherence to rules and traditional mores, the maintenance of hierarchical relationships, and absolute ideas of right and wrong. Any society based on the latter will find novels inherently immoral and subversive.
Jane SmileyRead
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By nature man hates change; seldom will he quit his old home till it has actually fallen around his ears.
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