Respect and fear are two different things. – Jane Smiley
When I came home for the summer after my first year of college, I told my mother that my best friend and I were driving to California. She laughed out loud – 2,000 miles in a what? Well, my best friend had an old Chevy. What could go wrong? – 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 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. – Jane Smiley