John Gardner Quotes

• Self pity is easily the most destructive of the non-pharmaceutical narcotics; it is addictive, gives momentary pleasure and separates the victim from reality.

  John Gardner

  Reality, Self, Giving

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• We read five words on the first page of a really good novel and we begin to forget that we are reading printed words on a page; we begin to see images.

  John Gardner

  Reading, Writing, Printed Word

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• As a rule of thumb I say, if Socrates, Jesus and Tolstoy wouldn't do it, don't.

  John Gardner

  Jesus, Thumbs, Ifs

  John Gardner, Stewart O'Nan (1994). “On writers and writing”, Addison-Wesley Longman

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• What art ought to do is tell stories which are moment-by-moment wonderful, which are true to human experience, and which in no way explain human experience.

  John Gardner

  Art, Stories, Way

  John Gardner, Allan Richard Chavkin (1990). “Conversations with John Gardner”, p.16, Univ. Press of Mississippi

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• When people are serving, life is no longer meaningless.

  John Gardner

  Kindness, Thoughtful, People

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• An excellent plumber is infinitely more admirable than an incompetent philosopher. The society which scorns excellence in plumbing because plumbing is a humble activity and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because it is an exalted activity will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy. Neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water.

  John Gardner

  Philosophy, Humble, Water

  "Excellence, Can We be Equal and Excellent Too?" by John W. Gardner, (p. 86), 1961.

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• The citizen can bring our political and governmental institutions back to life, make them responsive and accountable, and keep them honest. No one else can.

  John Gardner

  Patriotic, Political, Democracy

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• Art, of course, is a way of thinking, a way of mining reality.

  John Gardner

  Art, Reality, Thinking

  John Gardner, Stewart O'Nan (1994). “On writers and writing”, Addison-Wesley Longman

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• Uno de los muchos retos interesantes que nos plantea la naturaleza es su aparente desinterés por mantener el orden que los humanos ansiamos.

  John Gardner

  Order, Interesting, Challenges

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• To write with taste, in the highest sense, is to write [...] so that no one commits suicide, no one despairs; to write [...] so that people understand, sympathize, see the universality of pain, and feel strengthened, if not directly encouraged to live on. If there is good to be said, the writer should say it. If there is bad to be said, he should say it in a way that reflects the truth that, though we see the evil, we choose to continue among the living. The true artist [...] gets his sense of worth and honor from his conviction that art is powerful--

  John Gardner

  Suicide, Art, Pain

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• The primary subject of fiction is and has always been human emotion, values, and beliefs.

  John Gardner

  Fiction, Emotion, Belief

  John Gardner (2010). “The Art of Fiction: Notes on Craft for Young Writers”, p.14, Vintage

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• When I was a child I truly loved: Unthinking love as calm and deep As the North Sea. But I have lived, And now I do not sleep.

  John Gardner

  Children, Sleep, Sea

  John Gardner (2010). “Grendel”, p.116, Vintage

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• One must be just a little crazy to write a great novel. One must be capable of allowing the darkest, most ancient and shrewd parts of one’s being to take over the work from time to time.

  John Gardner

  Crazy, Writing, Littles

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• A common and usually unfortunate answer is “Write about what you know.” Nothing can be more limiting to the imagination, nothing is quicker to turn on the psyche's censoring devices and distortion systems, than trying to write truthfully.

  John Gardner

  Writing, Imagination, Knows

  "The Art of Fiction: Notes on Craft for Young Writers".

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• People will tell you that writing is too difficult, that it's impossible to get your work published, that you might as well hang yourself. Meanwhile, they'll keep writing and you'll have hanged yourself.

  John Gardner

  Writing, People, Might

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• Our noblest hopes grow teeth and pursue us like tigers.

  John Gardner

  Teeth, Grows, Pursue

  John Gardner, Joe Servello (1977). “In the suicide mountains”, Random House Inc

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• As every writer knows... there is something mysterious about the writer's ability, on any given day, to write. When the juices are flowing, or the writer is 'hot', an invisible wall seems to fall away, and the writer moves easily and surely from one kind of reality to another... Every writer has experienced at least moments of this strange, magical state. Reading student fiction one can spot at once where the power turns on and where it turns off, where the writer writes from 'inspiration' or deep, flowing vision, and where he had to struggle along on mere intellect.

  John Gardner

  Wall, Struggle, Moving

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• The true artist plays mad with his soul, labors at the very lip of the volcano, but remembers and clings to his purpose, which is as strong as the dream. He is not someone possessed, like Cassandra, but a passionate, easily tempted explorer who fully intends to get home again, like Odysseus.

  John Gardner

  Dream, Strong, Home

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• There is no limit to desire but desire's needs.

  John Gardner

  Desire, Needs, Limits

  John Gardner (2010). “Grendel”, p.93, Vintage

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• I know everything, you see,' the old voice wheedled. 'The beginning, the present, the end. Everything. You now, you see the past and the present, like other low creatures: no higher faculties than memory and perception. But dragons, my boy, have a whole different kind of mind.' He stretched his mouth in a kind of smile, no trace of pleasure in it. 'We are from the mountaintop: all time, all space. We see in one instant the passionate vision and the blowout.

  John Gardner

  Memories, Boys, Past

  John Gardner (2010). “Grendel”, p.62, Vintage

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• Hablando, hablando. Tejiendo una red de palabras, pálidos muros de sueños, entre yo y todo lo que veo.

  John Gardner

  Dream, Wall, Spinning Around

  John Gardner (2010). “Grendel”, p.8, Vintage

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• Fiction does not spring into the world fully grown, like Athena. It is the process of writing and rewriting that makes a fiction original, if not profound.

  John Gardner

  Spring, Inspiration, Writing

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• ...ultimately it come down to, are you making or are you destroying? If you try very hard to create ways of living, create dreams of what is possible, then you win. If you don't, you may make a fortune in ten years, but you're not going to be read in twenty years, and that's that.

  John Gardner

  Dream, Winning, Years

  John Gardner, Allan Richard Chavkin (1990). “Conversations with John Gardner”, p.168, Univ. Press of Mississippi

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• No podía seguir, demasiado consciente a la vez de mi susurro, de mi eterna postura, siempre transformando el mundo con palabras... sin cambiar nada.

  John Gardner

  Goes On, Whispering, World

  John Gardner (2010). “Grendel”, p.49, Vintage

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• Art Gropes. It stalks like a hunter lost in the woods, listening to itself and to everything around it, unsure of itself, waiting to pounce.

  John Gardner

  Art, Writing, Waiting

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