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 GardnerThe image-managers encourage the individual to fashion himself into a smooth coin, negotiable in any market.
John GardnerOne of the many interesting challenges nature presents us is its apparent disinterest in maintaining the order humans crave.
John GardnerI 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