25 Quotes by Diane Johnson

Any essayist setting out on a frail apparatus of notings and jottings is a brave person.

The whole process of writing a novel is having this great, beautiful idea and then spoiling it.

...is this not in fact the purpose of young Americans going abroad? To make them think of things they never thought of?

But novels are never about what they are about; that is, there is always deeper, or more general, significance. The author may not be aware of this till she is pretty far along with it. A novel's whole pattern is rarely apparent at the outset of writing, or even at the end; that is when the writer finds out what a novel is about, and the job becomes one of understanding and deepening or sharpening what is already written. That is finding the theme.

I don't know why in the world you would want to turn Cream Ridge into suburbia. I tell people it's the best kept secret in New Jersey.

I will miss being involved in the daily happening of young people and having the opportunity to see them mature.

I saw a white T-shirt and a blond head on the other side of the tree and honked the horn for about 10 seconds,

Our whole idea is to save these things for future generations.

A novel's whole pattern is rarely apparent at the outset of writing, or even at the end; that is when the writer finds out what a novel is about, and the job becomes one of understanding and deepening or sharpening what is already written. That is finding the theme.