Quotes by Jane Smiley

• I loved the house the way you would any new house, because it is populated by your future, the family of children who will fill it with noise or chaos and satisfying busy pleasures.
• In my experience, there is only one motivation, and that is desire. No reasons or principle contain it or stand against it.
• Oh, that sound? I'm in the hot tub, reading a novel.
• Your sons weren't made to like you. That's what grandchildren are for.
• 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.
• Success is often the result of a series of hard-fought failures awkwardly dressed as life lessons.
• Life is a lot like a pancake; all you can do is flip it and hope for syrup.