Jane Yolen
30 quotes
Biography
"Literature is a textually transmitted disease, normally contracted in childhood."
"Exercise the writing muscle every day, even if it is only a letter, notes, a title list, a character sketch, a journal entry. Writers are like dancers, like athletes. Without that exercise, the muscles seize up."
"A book is a wonderful present. Though it may grow worn, it will never grow old."
"Part of her revolted against the insanity of the rules. Part of her was grateful. In a world of chaos, any guidelines helped. And she knew that each day she remained alive, she remained alive. One plus one plus one. The Devil's arithmetic..."
"Fiction cannot recite the numbing numbers, but it can be that witness, that memory. A storyteller can attempt to tell the human tale, can make a galaxy out of the chaos, can point to the fact that some people survived even as most people died. And can remind us that the swallows still sing around the smokestacks."
"Fifteen years can be a long or a short time, depending upon whether one is immortal or not."
"Madness also makes folks uneasy; they fear contagion."
"For what was art, she thought, but the heart and soul made visible."
"There is no liar like the one who lies to himself. He has a fool indeed for an audience."
"Princesses did not make scenes. One needed to be a queen to do that."
"Looking backward was an old man’s drug."
"Know, my son, that the enemy will always be with you. He will be in the shadow of your dreams and in your living flesh, for he is the other part of yourself."
"She filled the pot, got out a new filter, threw the old one onto the garbage, and counted out five tablespoons of Columbian Supreme. Then she waited while the magic of modern invention turned tap water into a hot dark-brown caffeine-powered drink. It was better than any Biblical miracle and risked no beliefs."
"“I’ll drive. You navigate.” He grinned. “I judge people by how well they read maps.”"
"Time may heal wounds, but it does not erase the scars."
"She hated to lie but she hated arguments even more."
"It is not crazy to want to know the past. It is only crazy to live there, like so many of the aristocracy."
"Wars do not make heroes of everyone."
"Wars may make heroes of men, but not all the time."
"I actually said a little prayer of my own then, my first since we had arrived: Please, God—get me out of this nuthouse!"
"But you know how it is: As soon as you decide to forget something, your brain comes to the conclusion that it’s the most fascinating thing in the world."
"But I scolded myself, That’s magical thinking, Marina. Consider instead what’s real."
"I’m not saying it was all for the best. (That’s one of the great stupid phrases of all time, imho.)"
"In fiction, the characters have their own lives. They may start as a gloss on the author’s life, but they move on from there. In poetry, especially confessional poetry but in other poetry as well, the poet is not writing characters so much as emotional truth wrapped in metaphor. Bam! Pow! A shot to the gut."
"1. Write every day2. Write what interests you.3. Write for the child inside of you. (Or the adult, if you are writing adult books.)4. Write with honest emotion5. Be careful of being facile6. Be wary of preaching7. Be prepared for serendipity"