Jane Smiley
Jane Smiley
Jane Smileyis an American novelist. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1992 for her novel A Thousand Acres...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth26 September 1949
CityLos Angeles, CA
CountryUnited States of America
book pages firsts
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.
dark narrative firsts
Sometimes, a novel is like a train: the first chapter is a comfortable seat in an attractive carriage, and the narrative speeds up. But there are other sorts of trains, and other sorts of novels. They rush by in the dark; passengers framed in the lighted windows are smiling and enjoying themselves.
perfect firsts
Every first draft is perfect, because all a first draft has to do is exist.
both mind society subversive
In a society that promotes conformity, ... novel-reading one person experiencing both the mind of another person and her own mind experiencing is a subversive force.
both mind society subversive
In a society that promotes conformity, ... novel-reading ù one person experiencing both the mind of another person and her own mind experiencing ù is a subversive force.
clean entirely imagine iraqis junk leave next opposed practical since
I've been entirely opposed to it since Day one. The next practical thing to do is to get out, and since I don't imagine we're going to clean up after us, the Iraqis are going to have to clean up all the junk we leave behind.
beginning boy desperate life merely painful portrait tone
'Lean on Pete' is the story of a boy and his horse, but it is never heart-warming - it ranges in tone from desperate to merely painful - and, while fascinating, it is never entertaining or redemptive. But if you want an unadorned portrait of American life (at least in some places) at the beginning of the 21st century, this is the book for you.
book chocolate cooked dinner eating family fun incredibly laid novels
Writing this book was incredibly fun because I soaked in the bathtub, laid around eating chocolate in bed, cooked dinner for my family and read novels the whole time.
horses intense
I gallop and jump and ride young horses with intense pleasure.
few hearings mass mccarthy miller name names previous refused witch
If American literature has a few heroes, Miller is one of them. He refused to name names at the McCarthy hearings, and his play 'The Crucible' analysed the hearings in the context of a previous American mass psychosis, the Salem witch trials.
amused behind instructor pass talented three took tries wheel
It once amused me that it took me three tries to pass my driver's test and that my driving instructor told my mother that I was the least talented person behind the wheel that she had ever taught.
behave best breeds horses move watch
With horses, familiarity breeds comfort. If you haven't been around horses for a while (or ever), the best thing to do is to go to the racetrack, a horse show, a rodeo, or some other horsey activity, and watch the horses. Familiarize yourself with the way they move and behave themselves.
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accepted his idea that the audience for a quality novel might not be large enough to support the author by means of commerce; this idea is a truism today, but it was new, even revolutionary, for Virginia Woolf, James Joyce and many of their contemporaries.
produce pure
It's pure hackwork. Here it is: I produce fast, I can do it on a deadline, and I usually have something to say about anything.