In my experience, there is only one motivation, and that is desire. No reasons or principle contain it or stand against it.
Jane SmileyWhen I came home for the summer after my first year of college, I told my mother that my best friend and I were driving to California. She laughed out loud - 2,000 miles in a what? Well, my best friend had an old Chevy. What could go wrong?
Jane SmileyNovelists of a conservative or more purely aesthetic bent hold up better on the surface, but their novels go in and out of fashion according to relevance or irrelevance.
Jane SmileyThe main thing about the novel that is totally fascinating: It's not possessed by the writer; it's possessed by the reader.
Jane Smiley