Jane Smiley Quotes

With any novel that you begin, you can't foresee how difficult or easy it's going to be, and you can't really prepare yourself. You just have a take it one step at a time and know that it's all right to keep going - you can always fix it.

Jane Smiley

• Time

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Quotes to Explore

• If we are a metaphor of the universe, the human couple is the metaphor par excellence, the point of intersection of all forces and the seed of all forms. The couple is time recaptured, the return to the time before time.

  

  Octavio Paz
  • Time
  • Universe
  • Couple

• It's hard to say how certain stories just punch us in the heart and the brain at the same time at the end. I suppose that's what we're all looking for. But each story has its own valence, its own way of saying goodbye to you.

  

  T. C. Boyle
  • Time
  • Heart
  • Brain

• When I first met Mandela, we did not discuss anything of substance; we just felt each other out. He spent a long time expressing his admiration for the Boer generals and how ingenious they were during the Anglo-Boer war.

  

  F. W. de Klerk
  • Time
  • Long
  • War

• The truth is everybody does it from time to time. People dial telephone numbers and they get a wrong number only to find that they've read the last two digits backwards. Everybody does it, but dyslexics have this tendency to a higher degree.

  

  Caitlyn Jenner
  • People
  • Time
  • Truth

• I never felt the need to introduce all the obstacles in my past when I say, 'Hello, my name is Nate.' But at the same time, I've never hidden from it.

  

  Nate Parker
  • Time
  • Past
  • Obstacles

• I love acting so much that I have to have that as much as I have to have my time with my kid.

  

  Tammy Blanchard
  • Time
  • Love
  • Acting

• I'm sure that was the right step, even though, formally speaking, it may seem disadvantageous for a president to resign. But, looking into what is happening today and what is going to happen in the future, I think history will show I made the right decision.

  

  Eduard Shevardnadze
  • May
  • History
  • Future

• I love writing songs. I love doing my radio show and talking to the fans and listening to what they have to say, but there's a certain responsibility that comes along with being given the gift of music. I take that seriously, but at the same time I try to use it to do something that makes a difference in a positive way.

  

  Randy Owen
  • Time
  • Music
  • Writing

• I cook mostly vegetarian vegetable and bean stews. Quinoa salads. I make my mother-in-law's recipe for chicken and barley stew all the time.

  

  Gail Simmons
  • Time
  • Mother
  • Law

• The beauty of our country is that when it was founded that they took some time to lay out civil liberties in the first 10 Amendments - the Bill of Rights. I'm a firm believer in those civil liberties and the ability to have your own opinion.

  

  Aaron Rodgers
  • Time
  • Country
  • Opinion

• There's a lot of cruelty going on all the time, and I'm not just talking about inter-human cruelty. I'm talking about whole species becoming extinct, asteroids hitting planets, black holes gobbling up stars.

  

  Barbara Ehrenreich
  • Up
  • Time
  • Black

• Companies are always being bought and sold. The markets are always moving; you have to be on top of your position. And in the U.S., the market is never closed for more than three days. The only time the market was ever closed was 9/11. I think it may have been closed the whole week.

  

  Karen Finerman
  • Time
  • May
  • Moving

• It took me a long time not to judge myself through someone else's eyes.

  

  Sally Field
  • Time
  • Long
  • Eyes

• I'm hoping that the administration and other thought leaders will succeed eventually in bringing the country back to the older idea that the American dream is having a career, getting a job, and getting involved in it, and doing well. That was the core of the good life.

  

  Edmund Phelps
  • Life
  • Good
  • Country

• 'Brisco' was the first show I created, and of course, at the time I had no idea what a special experience it was because I didn't have a frame of reference. After it was over I was like, 'Damn. Shoot. That was something special.' I'm still upset that it got cancelled.

  

  Carlton Cuse
  • Time
  • Experience
  • Special

• I definitely feel like kids do look up to me as a potential role model. It's an honor, but it can also be a burden. I may be on TV, but I'm also a teenager. I don't get it right every time. But I always do my absolute best to stay above board in every way. My fans inspire me to be a better person.

  

  Nathan Kress
  • Up
  • Time
  • May

• Religious traditions are easy to lose sight of in today's marketing frenzy. Make sure you take time to gently usher your little ones into the rituals that have special meaning for you.

  

  Adam Mansbach
  • Time
  • Today
  • Religious

• I have a hard time watching films and not thinking how I would play any part, whether it's a man or a woman.

  

  B. D. Wong
  • Time
  • Thinking
  • Man

• So many girls only care about guys and looking good all the time.

  

  Victoria Justice
  • Time
  • Good
  • Care

• In view of our public pledges, we public officials can never again go before the public merely promising election reform. The time for promises is past.

  

  Charles Edison
  • Time
  • Past

• To Than Shwe, a kingdom in return for the eternal soul is just the right egregious trade-off. Than Shwe is a general who carries the light of unbounded ambition.

  

  Clarissa Pinkola Estes
  • Soul
  • Light
  • Ambition

• I did a drama degree, went to secretarial college, then got a job with a theatre company in Birmingham. It's been a slow burn, which doesn't seem to have gone out.

  

  Tamsin Greig
  • Job
  • College
  • Drama

• You're in a scene with Laura Linney or Oliver Platt or John Hickey or Alan Alda and these amazing actors and actresses, and you're like, 'Oh my God, I haven't even started; I'm nothing compared to these people!'

  

  Gabriel Basso
  • People
  • God
  • Amazing

• With any novel that you begin, you can't foresee how difficult or easy it's going to be, and you can't really prepare yourself. You just have a take it one step at a time and know that it's all right to keep going - you can always fix it.

  

  Jane Smiley
  • Time