Jane Smiley Quotes

You can only judge anything that happened in the times, in the times that that happened.

Literature - novels, plays, and poems - can have an uncanny dual life, where they simultaneously represent something eternal and something historical, and this is often how they are taught in school.

It must inquire not merely about the circumstances of the time in general, but in particular about the writer's position with regard to these things, the interests and motives, the leading ideas of his literary activity.

The scholars and poets of an earlier time can be read only with a dictionary to help.

As a former English major, I have always been fascinated by the connections between literature and history.

People would react to books by authors like James and Austen almost on a gut level. I think it was not so much the message, because the best authors do not have obvious messages. These authors were disturbing to my students because of their perspectives on life.

Great authors are admirable in this respect: in every generation they make for disagreement. Through them we become aware of our differences.

Every literary critic believes he will outwit history and have the last word.

I think doing period piece is easier, because after a certain distance, everybody is equal, I think. The relative contemporary is harder. I think that's the way it is.

Critic's delight: scolding the Mighty Dead.

There are thus great swathes of the past where understanding is more important and reputable than judgement, because the principal actors performed in line with the ideas and values of that time, not of ours.

Sinclair Lewis may be ripe for a revival; his books raise several interesting issues of art and fashion.

A good drama critic is one who perceives what is happening in the theatre of his time. A great drama critic also perceives what is not happening.

Many of my works fall into the category of 'Zeitgeist novels'. Yet I hope that they aren't only reportage, but also attempts to convey the sense of the present to the future.

I'm much more likely to get lynched over 'The Killing' than 'Macbeth.'

We believed that to understand literature, you had to understand its place in history and culture.

An author ought to write for the youth of his own generation, the critics of the next, and the schoolmaster of ever afterwards.

Of course the 19th century remained in blissful ignorance of post-modern irony, and the dime novels were made without end.

It's very important to always put things in their historical contexts. It teaches important lessons about the country in question.

Sometimes people who want to understand Haiti from a political perspective may be missing part of the picture. They also need to look at Haiti from a psychological perspective.

It is doubtless one of Aristotle's great services that he conceived so clearly the truth that literature is a thing that grows and has a history.

Literature is the denunciation of the times in which one lives.

If you wanted to show a mirror to people that says, 'You've been drunk on money,' they're not going to want to see it. But if you reflected that mirror on another time they'd be willing to. People will need an explanation of where we are and where we've been, and 'The Great Gatsby' can provide that explanation.

With Shakespeare, the hard work is to find out why he said it and how it can relate to the audience.

In any film there's always a historical implication.