Jane Smiley Ideas Quotations

A child who is protected from all controversial ideas is as vulnerable as a child who is protected from every germ. The infection, when it comes- and it will come- may overwhelm the system, be it the immune system or the belief system.

The novel as a form is usually seen to be moral if its readers consider freedom, individuality, democracy, privacy, social connection, tolerance and hope to be morally good, but it is not considered moral if the highest values of a society are adherence to rules and traditional mores, the maintenance of hierarchical relationships, and absolute ideas of right and wrong. Any society based on the latter will find novels inherently immoral and subversive.

My great fear is not that I'll run out of ideas. It's that I'll run out of time.

I readily admit it is easy to make of horses what we will. Silent, in some ways reserved, they allow us to train them, and to project our ideas upon them; to ride and drive them, and to make them symbolic, perhaps to a greater degree than any other species.

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

Gossip. The more you talk about why people do things, the more ideas you have about how the world works.

Take naps. Often new ideas come together when you are half asleep, but you have to train yourself to remember them.