To write with taste, in the highest sense, is to write [...] so that no one commits suicide, no one despairs; to write [...] so that people understand, sympathize, see the universality of pain, and feel strengthened, if not directly encouraged to live on. If there is good to be said, the writer should say it. If there is bad to be said, he should say it in a way that reflects the truth that, though we see the evil, we choose to continue among the living. The true artist [...] gets his sense of worth and honor from his conviction that art is powerful--
What art ought to do is tell stories which are moment-by-moment wonderful, which are true to human experience, and which in no way explain human expe… - John Gardner
What art ought to do is tell stories which are moment-by-moment wonderful, which are true to human experience, and which in no way explain human expe…
- John Gardner
An excellent plumber is infinitely more admirable than an incompetent philosopher. The society which scorns excellence in plumbing because plumbing i… - John Gardner
An excellent plumber is infinitely more admirable than an incompetent philosopher. The society which scorns excellence in plumbing because plumbing i…
As a rule of thumb I say, if Socrates, Jesus and Tolstoy wouldn't do it, don't. - John Gardner
As a rule of thumb I say, if Socrates, Jesus and Tolstoy wouldn't do it, don't.
The citizen can bring our political and governmental institutions back to life, make them responsive and accountable, and keep them honest. No one el… - John Gardner
The citizen can bring our political and governmental institutions back to life, make them responsive and accountable, and keep them honest. No one el…
When people are serving, life is no longer meaningless. - John Gardner
When people are serving, life is no longer meaningless.
I know everything, you see,' the old voice wheedled. 'The beginning, the present, the end. Everything. You now, you see the past and the present, lik… - John Gardner
I know everything, you see,' the old voice wheedled. 'The beginning, the present, the end. Everything. You now, you see the past and the present, lik…
One of the many interesting challenges nature presents us is its apparent disinterest in maintaining the order humans crave. - John Gardner
One of the many interesting challenges nature presents us is its apparent disinterest in maintaining the order humans crave.
I couldn't go on, too conscious all at once of my whispering, my eternal posturing, always transforming the world with words--changing nothing. - John Gardner
I couldn't go on, too conscious all at once of my whispering, my eternal posturing, always transforming the world with words--changing nothing.
Art, of course, is a way of thinking, a way of mining reality. - John Gardner
Art, of course, is a way of thinking, a way of mining reality.
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