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. – Jane Smiley
Somehow, knowing that Alzheimers is coming mocks all ones aspirations – to tell stories, to think through certain issues as only a novel can do, to be recognised for ones accomplishments and hard work – in a way that old familiar death does not. – Jane Smiley
In my experience, there is only one motivation, and that is desire. No reasons or principle contain it or stand against it. – Jane Smiley
Mom was a smoker. My grandfather was a smoker. My aunts were smokers. My uncles were smokers. I dont know any smokers now, not even my mom. – Jane Smiley
The human condition is such that pain and effort are not just symptoms which can be removed without changing life itself; they are the modes in which life itself, together with the necessity to which it is bound, makes itself felt. For mortals, the easy life of the gods would be a lifeless life. – Hannah Arendt