74 Quotes by Ernest Gaines

I suppose I started writing seriously at 16 years old. I thought I wrote a novel at 16 and sent it to New York! They sent it back because it wasn't novel.

I knew I wanted to be a writer and I knew if I had a wife and family, I would neglect something, and I was afraid it wouldn't be the writing.

I try to write something that would interest anybody and keep them turning the page. You must have a plot and good storyline.

The sharecropper may lower his eyes, but not because he's less of a man. That's just a condition of society that such things exist.

I had to see and feel and be with the thing that I wanted to write about.

I write with as much objectivity as I can.

We looked at each other, and I could see in those big reddened eyes that he was not going to scream. He was full of anger - and who could blame him? - but he was no fool. He needed me, and he wanted me here, if only to insult me.

If I were to give one piece of advice, I would say to never accept anything that you hear or see at face value. As a general rule of thumb, then the more you question, the better.

I like the sound of people's voices, and I think what a man says can very well tell what he's thinking, whether he's lying or not.