A chaplain's biggest gift is to be present and just listen.

- Diane Johnson

...is this not in fact the purpose of young Americans going abroad? To make them think of things they never thought of?

- Diane Johnson

Any essayist setting out on a frail apparatus of notings and jottings is a brave person.

- Diane Johnson

Laughter is the jam on the toast of life. It adds flavor, keeps it from being too dry, and makes it easier to swallow.

- Diane Johnson

The whole process of writing a novel is having this great, beautiful idea and then spoiling it.

- Diane Johnson

The Novelist, afraid his ideas may be foolish, slyly puts them in the mouth of some other fool and reserves the right to disavow them.

- Diane Johnson

Not having to own a car has made me realize what a waste of time the automobile is.

- Diane Johnson

But novels are never about what they are about; that is, there is always deeper, or more general, significance. The author may not be aware of this t…

- Diane Johnson

In what we think of as bad dialogue, the characters talk directly to each other.

- Diane Johnson