Quotes from Jane Smiley

Yo admiraba esa férrea disciplina que le permitía centrarse en escribir una novela sobre Alaska por la mañana y un libro sobre la Casa Blanca por la tarde, así que, en cierto modo, también admiré el hecho de que mantuviese su palabra y no volviese a hablarme nunca más.

He was turning out to be one of those men whose interest diminished as they got to know you. You got into this pattern of trying to be interesting by revealing more and more of yourself, like a salesman unpacking his sample bag, but the man, though he looked like he was smiling and paying attention, was really shaking his head internally—not that, not that either, no I don't think so, not today.

Hay cosas que podemos hacer sin problema en nuestra familia –comer tranquilamente, prestar dinero, contar secretos–, pero cuando nos juntamos, los ecos del pasado nos desbordan.

Les he dado a mis hijos los dos regalos más crueles: la experiencia de una felicidad familiar perfecta y la absoluta certeza de que tarde o temprano se acaba.

In truth Mr Jonas Silk was as niggardly as he was jealous, and my sister Beatrice had as much interest in Kansas as she did in the czar of all the Russias, and so my brother Mr. Horace Silk worked out his plans in a white heat of frustrated eagerness.

She was almost sixty and she had not been to London, or Paris, or Rome, and there was no going there now. Yes, she was balanced, as she had gotten into the habit of congratulating herself for being. But, she saw, she was balanced on a very narrow perch.

And of course there was no help for it, except recalling bits of conversations she had overheard from time to time about marriage. That's what knitting groups and sewing groups were for, wasn't it? Commiserating about marriage.

She looked out the window of her office, feeling that she had passed through a doorway that she had never realized was there.

I think that the Cold War was an exceptional and unnecessary piece of cruelty.

In the traditional urban novel, there is only survival or not. The suburban idea, the conformist idea, that agony can be seen to and cured by doctors or psychoanalysis or self-knowledge is nowhere to be found in the city. Talking is a way of life, but it is not a cure. Same with religion.

An urban novelist never minds a little decay.

I was an only child. I've known only children. From this experience, I do believe that the children should outnumber the parents.

The brave view is that talking it out helps work it out. Maybe the realistic view is that talking it out inflames the issues further. But that is America, especially these days.

Before I write a novel, images float around in my head that work like icons - they are meaningless in themselves, but serve as reminders.

Sinclair Lewis may be ripe for a revival; his books raise several interesting issues of art and fashion.

If to live is to progress, if you are lucky, from foolishness to wisdom, then to write novels is to broadcast the various stages of your foolishness.

'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.

Twenty-five, he was. Twenty-five tomorrow. Some years the snow had melted for his birthday, but not this year, and so it had been a long winter full of cows.

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

Combined families often get bad reviews, but the family my children got when they traded away 'the suffocating four-person' nuclear one is one that has benefited all of them.

The one thing ... maybe no family could tolerate was things coming out into the open.

Respect and fear are two different things.

I have noticed before that there is a category of acquaintanceship that is not friendship or business or romance, but speculation, fascination.

I loved the house the way you would any new house, because it is populated by your future, the family of children who will fill it with noise or chaos and satisfying busy pleasures.