Diane Johnson famous quotes

Last updated: Sep 5, 2024

But novels are never about what they are about; that is, there is always deeper, or more general, significance. The author may not be aware of this till she is pretty far along with it. A novel's whole pattern is rarely apparent at the outset of writing, or even at the end; that is when the writer finds out what a novel is about, and the job becomes one of understanding and deepening or sharpening what is already written. That is finding the theme.
-- Diane Johnson

#Jobs #Writing #Understanding
But novels are never about what they are about; that is, there is always deeper, or more general, significance. The author may not be aware of this till she is pretty far along with it.
-- Diane Johnson

#May #Novel #Significance
A chaplain's biggest gift is to be present and just listen.
-- Diane Johnson

#Chaplains #Just Listen
Glenda Adams has written a wicked and witty novel.
-- Diane Johnson

#Witty #Wicked #Novel
Statuettes of drunken sailors, velvet pictures of island maidens, plastic seashell lamps made in Taiwan. What contempt the people who think up souvenirs have for other people.
-- Diane Johnson

#Thinking #Islands #People
The Novelist, afraid his ideas may be foolish, slyly puts them in the mouth of some other fool and reserves the right to disavow them.
-- Diane Johnson

#Ideas #Novelists #Mouths
Laughter is the jam on the toast of life. It adds flavor, keeps it from being too dry, and makes it easier to swallow.
-- Diane Johnson

#Laughter #Add #Jam
Women have the feeling that since they didn't make the rules, the rules have nothing to do with them.
-- Diane Johnson

#Work #Feelings
Not having to own a car has made me realize what a waste of time the automobile is.
-- Diane Johnson

#Car #Waste #Wasting Time
The whole process of writing a novel is having this great, beautiful idea and then spoiling it.
-- Diane Johnson

#Beautiful #Writing #Ideas
In what we think of as bad dialogue, the characters talk directly to each other.
-- Diane Johnson

#Character #Thinking #Crafts
Any essayist setting out on a frail apparatus of notings and jottings is a brave person.
-- Diane Johnson

#Brave #Frail #Persons

You may also like:

Alan Dean Foster
Author
Barry Nelson
Actor
Carol Kane
Television actress
David Niven
Actor
Diane Keaton
Film actress
Jack Nicholson
Actor
Robert Duvall
Actor
Robin Williams
Actor
Roger Moore
Actor
Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
Novelist
Sean Connery
Actor
Shelley Duvall
Film actress
Sissy Spacek
Film actress
Stanley Kubrick
Film director
Stephen King
Author
Teri Garr
Actress
Timothy Dalton
Actor
Wendy Carlos
Film Score Composer
James Ivory
Film director
Jan Harlan
Executive producer