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

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

  • 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.

  • There are hundreds of Frank Lloyd Wright buildings around the United States and in other countries, too. Wright lived into his 90s, and one of his most famous buildings, the Guggenheim Museum in New York, was completed just before his death. Wright buildings look like Wright buildings - that is their paradox.

  • Respect and fear are two different things.