When a novel has 200,000 words, then it is possible for the reader to experience 200,000 delights, and to turn back to the first page of the book and experience them all over again, perhaps more intensely.
Jane SmileyThe essence of charity ... was not deciding what others needed and giving it to them, but giving them what they wanted.
Jane SmileyI had spent years thinking about one thing while I was doing another. I had, in fact, prided myself on being able to do two things at once.
Jane SmileySome people do wait their whole lives for something, and it's only when that thing arrives that they find out that they've been waiting rather than living.
Jane SmileyThe body, the mind, and the spirit don't form a pyramid, they form a circle. Each of them runs into the other two. The body isn't below the mind and the spirit; from the point of view it's between them. if you reside too much in the mind, then you get too abstract and cut off from the world. You long for the spiritual life, but you can't get to it, and you fall into despair. The exercise of the senses frees you from abstraction and opens the way to transcendence.
Jane Smiley