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The novel is, above all, an intense experience of prolonged intimacy with another consciousness.

— Jane Smiley Charles Dickens (2003)

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More quotes by Jane Smiley

Many people, myself among them, feel better at the mere sight of a book.

Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Novel (2006)

She said, “Some are born bossy, some achieve bossiness, and some have bossiness thrust upon them.”

Golden Age (2015)

What truly horsey girls discover in the end is that boyfriends, husbands, children, and careers are the substitute — for horses.

A Year at the Races (2004)

I learned why "out riding alone" is an oxymoron: An equestrian is never alone, is always sensing the other being, the mysterious but also understandable living being that is the horse.

A novelist has two lives — a reading and writing life, and a lived life. he or she cannot be understood at all apart from this.

Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Novel (2006)

All Jane Smiley quotes →

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Jane Smiley (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.