Jane Smiley

“Many people, myself among them, feel that Congress is nuts.”

“In my experience, there is only one motivation, and that is desire. No reasons or principle contain it or stand against it.”

“When I am writing, I am trying to be just an observer. I am not a moralist. I am just trying to see what is.”

“To be a writer is to sit down at one's desk in the chill portion of every day, and to write; not waiting for the call from God, but creating a world for oneself.”

“I’ve known a lot of people who are in love with the idea of writing a novel, but they’re not in love with the writing of it.”

“The reason I am a writer is that I have a lifelong love of reading.”

“Happiness is a mysterious thing, to be found somewhere between too little and too much.”

“Writing a novel is not method acting, but joining a different tribe, gaining access to a different world.”

“My characters are all story-tellers, and they are all fighting for their lives.”

“Good manners are just a way of showing other people that we have respect for them.”

“The one thing that you have that nobody else has is you. Your voice, your mind, your story, your vision. So write and draw and build and play and dance and live as only you can.”

“I think the novel is a great art form, the one that can contain the most.”

“A child's appetite for new boots, shoes, and sneakers is every bit as keen as his appetite for praise, and in my experience it is just as pleasant to lavish all three on him.”

“The first fifty pages of a book are the most important. They have to be both intriguing and conventional.”