Quotes by Jane Smiley

Jane Smiley

‘Ape House’ is an ambitious novel in several ways, for which it is to be admired, and it is certainly an easy read, but because Gruen is not quite prepared for the philosophical implications of her subject, it is not as deeply involving emotionally or as interesting thematically as it could be.

House

Interesting

Philosophical

A child who is protected from all controversial ideas is as vulnerable as a child who is protected from every germ. The infection, when it comes- and it will come- may overwhelm the system, be it the immune system or the belief system.

Children

Ideas

May

A novelist is on the cusp between someone who knows everything and someone who knows nothing.

Cusp

Knows

Novelists

A reader’s tastes are peculiar. Choosing books to read is like making your way down a remote and winding path. Your stops on that path are always idiosyncratic. One book leads to another and another the way one thought leads to another and another. My type of reader is the sort who burrows through the stacks in the bookstore or the library (or the Web site — stacks are stacks), yielding to impulse and instinct.

Book

Library

Peculiar

A theory of creativity is actually just a metaphor. A pool of ideas, a well of memories, a voice.

Creativity

Ideas

Memories

After a long day, folk rest at night. After a long summer, folk play games and sit about in the winter. After a long life folk sit about the fire and stay warm, for the chill of death is upon them, and even the thickest bearskin can’t keep off the shivering.

Life

Summer

Winter

Americans took a great deal too much credit for creating wealth, when most of the time they had really just been living off natural bounty unprecedented in the history of the world.

Creating

Too Much

United States

An urban novelist never minds a little decay.

Decay

Mind

Novelists

Another thing he told his customers was that one of the great accounting unknowns of the modern age was how to value knowledge. It was an exciting field.

Age

Assessment

Fields

Because your goal is a complete rough draft of a novel, and every rough draft, by being complete, is perfect.

Goal

Perfect

Rough Drafts

Follow The Behaviour University in order to get the greatest quotes from the greatest people of all time so that you can tap into your own greatness.

Activity

Age

Aging

America

Art

Assessment

Avid

Believe

Blind

Book

Breathing

Care

The Future Blueprint

Tool

The Home Therapist: Anti Anxiety

Tool

The Autobiography

Tool

The Behaviour Diary

Tool

The Dating Diary

Tool

The Relationship Therapist

Tool

Quotes by Jane Smiley

Jane Smiley

‘Ape House’ is an ambitious novel in several ways, for which it is to be admired, and it is certainly an easy read, but because Gruen is not quite prepared for the philosophical implications of her subject, it is not as deeply involving emotionally or as interesting thematically as it could be.

A child who is protected from all controversial ideas is as vulnerable as a child who is protected from every germ. The infection, when it comes- and it will come- may overwhelm the system, be it the immune system or the belief system.

A novelist is on the cusp between someone who knows everything and someone who knows nothing.

A theory of creativity is actually just a metaphor. A pool of ideas, a well of memories, a voice.

After a long day, folk rest at night. After a long summer, folk play games and sit about in the winter. After a long life folk sit about the fire and stay warm, for the chill of death is upon them, and even the thickest bearskin can’t keep off the shivering.

Americans took a great deal too much credit for creating wealth, when most of the time they had really just been living off natural bounty unprecedented in the history of the world.

An urban novelist never minds a little decay.

Another thing he told his customers was that one of the great accounting unknowns of the modern age was how to value knowledge. It was an exciting field.

Because your goal is a complete rough draft of a novel, and every rough draft, by being complete, is perfect.

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Topics by Jane Smiley

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The Future Blueprint

The Home Therapist: Anti Anxiety

The Autobiography

The Behaviour Diary

The Dating Diary

The Relationship Therapist

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