Jane Smiley Quotes

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

• Live
• Wisdom
• Progress

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Quotes to Explore

• I turned down a lot of films.

  

  Francesca Annis
  • Down
  • Films
  • Lot

• Marriage has always been a state and local issue.

  

  Rand Paul
  • Always
  • Marriage
  • Issue

• You have to find out how to become the character.

  

  Kara Hayward
  • Character
  • You
  • Find

• I got into the race and people literally laughed. They thought I had no chance of winning.

  

  Patrick McHenry
  • People
  • Winning
  • Thought

• When I was in high school, I was really into string theory and superstring theory and read 'Scientific American.' It's fascinating.

  

  Sam Trammell
  • School
  • American
  • High

• I know what I look like - a weird, sad clown puppet. I'm fine with that.

  

  Rainn Wilson
  • Weird
  • Sad
  • Look

• In our Western culture, although death has come out of the closet, it is still not openly experienced or discussed. Allowing dying to be so intensely present enriches both the preciousness of each moment and our detachment from it.

  

  Ram Dass
  • Death
  • Culture
  • Present

• As a liberal and progressive, I abhor the notion of conflict and bloodshed and very much want to find a diplomatic solution to the Iran nuclear issue.

  

  Edgar Bronfman, Sr.
  • Want
  • Conflict
  • Solution

• Everyone should learn to tango in Argentina before they die.

  

  Ian McKeever
  • Die
  • Learn
  • Everyone

• I had no future with the Dodgers, because I was too closely identified with Branch Rickey. After the club was taken over by Walter O'Malley, you couldn't even mention Mr. Rickey's name in front of him. I considered Mr. Rickey the greatest human being I had ever known.

  

  Jackie Robinson
  • Future
  • Taken
  • Name

• I and life: The case was settled chivalrously. The opponents parted without having made up.

  

  Karl Kraus
  • Life
  • Up
  • Without

• I was lucky that I started very young, since I had a very clear idea of what I wanted to do. But my father is very conservative, and he never considered fashion to be a real career but something I could pursue as a hobby. He wanted me to be a doctor, and at one point, I thought of becoming a plastic surgeon.

  

  Edgardo Osorio
  • Real
  • Father
  • Career

• You've got to understand, people are motivated by fun. And they should be.

  

  P. J. O'Rourke
  • People
  • Fun
  • Understand

• If you look at a lot of the songs I've been involved in, there's always been this retro vibe. I started getting worried that I wasn't moving forward very much, nor was I even in tune with the music today. I almost scoffed at it.

  

  Nate Ruess Fun.
  • Music
  • Today
  • Moving

• I make the music my ears want to hear, I wear the clothes my body wants to wear and the ones boys call me back for, and I generally make the songs that my feet dance to.

  

  Natalia Kills
  • Music
  • Dance
  • Feet

• I'm a darned good listener.

  

  Naomi Judd
  • Good
  • Listener
  • Darned

• My first film 'Saawariya' was a flop; I don't regret it.

  

  Ranbir Kapoor
  • Film
  • First
  • Regret

• If only we could pull out our brain and use only our eyes.

  

  Pablo Picasso
  • Eyes
  • Brain
  • Only

• Sometimes when you're praised about something, sometimes it's deserved, and sometimes it's not deserved. Same thing with criticism. Sometimes the criticism is deserved, and sometimes it's not deserved.

  

  LaDainian Tomlinson
  • Sometimes
  • Same
  • Criticism

• I'll tell a young kid in a minute, 'If you don't know how to read, then what good is trying to be an MC?' Like, you can MC, but if you're not trying to be a better person, learn and apply that to your MCing, then how far do you think you're really going to go?

  

  Raekwon
  • Good
  • Trying
  • Learn

• I did a number of local children's theater plays growing up, but in 5th grade, I had some good times on stage making people laugh as a troll in 'The Hobbit.' That solidified my dream to be on 'Saturday Night Live,' which was hugely influential for me growing up.

  

  Lauren Lapkus
  • People
  • Up
  • Good

• After telephone, kinematograph and phonograph had replaced newspaper, book schoolmaster and letter, to live outside the range of the electric cables was to live an isolated savage.

  

  H. G. Wells
  • Live
  • Book
  • Letters

• Anyone can play an instrument if you show them how to move their limbs, lips or fingers the right way. It's irrelevant. What is relevant is personality, energy, creativity and disturbing sense of humour.

  

  Alex Kapranos Franz Ferdinand
  • Instrument
  • Sense Of Humor
  • Right Way

• 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
  • Live
  • Wisdom
  • Progress