I love to write about sex. You just have to make it idiosyncratic. You have to have a strong comprehension of your characters, and write it from their point of view. It's really fun. It's not erotic.
Jane SmileyMen are competent in groups that mimic the playground, incompetent in groups that mimic the family
Jane SmileyIn my experience, there is only one motivation, and that is desire. No reasons or principle contain it or stand against it.
Jane SmileyHorse racing is really much more intimidating than anything having to do with literature. When I had horses at the racetrack, I would wake up in terror in a way that I would never wake up while working on a novel.
Jane SmileyOne of the profound effects of economics in our day is that the people with the money and the power have embraced the guilt-free, external-less, everything-will-turn-out-okay-in-the-end philosophy of economics in order to justify their own evil works. And the economists, for the most part, have sucked up to that money.
Jane Smiley