Jane Smiley

Novelists of a conservative or more purely aesthetic bent hold up better on the surface, but their novels go in and out of fashion according to relevance or irrelevance.

Ignorance and bloodlust have a long tradition in the United States, especially in the red states.

A theory of creativity is actually just a metaphor. A pool of ideas, a well of memories, a voice.

Well, I actually wrote her a letter a couple of days ago congratulating her. The tone I tried to convey in the letter is, look, you are a part of a great American historical process.

Giving jazz the Congressional seal of approval is a little like making Huck Finn an honorary Boy Scout.

It took me realizing that a broken heart has never actually killed anyone to find the courage to ask for what I want, in just about every situation. That was part of my own growing up.