Ernest Gaines
Ernest Gaines
Ernest James Gainesis an African-American author whose works have been taught in college classrooms and translated into many languages, including French, Spanish, German, Russian and Chinese. Four of his works have been made into television movies...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth15 January 1933
CountryUnited States of America
writing past trying
All writers write about the past, and I try to make it come alive so you can see what happened.
new-york writing years
I suppose I started writing seriously at 16 years old. I thought I wrote a novel at 16 and sent it to New York! They sent it back because it wasn't novel.
writing wanted feels
I had to see and feel and be with the thing that I wanted to write about.
writing objectivity i-can
I write with as much objectivity as I can.
writing trying pages
I try to write something that would interest anybody and keep them turning the page. You must have a plot and good storyline.
writing wife neglect
I knew I wanted to be a writer and I knew if I had a wife and family, I would neglect something, and I was afraid it wouldn't be the writing.
reading writing imagination
I have learned as much about writing about my people by listening to blues and jazz and spirituals as I have from reading novels. The understatements in the tenor saxophone of Lester Young, the crystal, haunting, forever searching sounds of John Coltrane, and the softness and violence of Count Basie's big band - all have fired my imagination as much as anything in literature.
writing yesterday pages
Today I must write a paragraph or a page better than I did yesterday.
writing missing singing
What I miss today more than anything else - I don't go to church as much anymore - but that old-time religion, that old singing, that old praying which I love so much. That is the great strength of my being, of my writing.
writing thinking who-i-am
I write to try to find out who I am. One of my main themes is manliness. I think I'm trying to figure out what manliness really is.
writing golden six
The Six Golden Rules of Writing: Read, read, read, and write, write, write.
came country deal knew realized tried
In the beginning, I tried to be a more cosmopolitan writer, but I realized that I was a country boy, and I had to deal with things I knew about and where I came from.
boss children face feed grace grow job men pressure war white
Grace under pressure isn't just about bullfighters and men at war. It's about getting up every day to face a job or a white boss you don't like but have to face to feed your children so they'll grow up to be a better generation.
home wanted
I wanted to be a writer. I wanted to say something about home.