Ernest Gaines Quotes

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All quotes by Ernest Gaines: Dying Jazz Writing more...
  • The mark of fear is not easily removed.

    "The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman".
  • I have learned as much about writing about my people by listening to blues and jazz and spirituals as I have by reading novels.

    People  
    Ernest J. Gaines (2007). “Mozart and Leadbelly”, p.27, Vintage
  • 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.

  • 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.

  • What I miss today more than anything else - I don't go to church as much anymore - but that old-time religion, that old singing, that old praying which I love so much. That is the great strength of my being, of my writing.

  • I still don't even know if the sheriff will let me see him. And suppose he did; what then? What do I say to him? Do I know what a man is? Do I know how a man is supposed to die? I'm still trying to find out how a man should live. Am I supposed to tell someone how to die who has never lived?

    Men   Dying   Trying  
    Ernest J. Gaines (2015). “A Lesson Before Dying”, p.36, Serpent's Tail
  • I wanted to be a writer. I wanted to say something about home.

    "Author Ernest Gaines comes home to where his ancestors were enslaved" by Wayne Drash, www.cnn.com. November 9, 2010.
  • Anytime a child is born, the old people look in his face and ask him if he's the One.

    People  
    Ernest J. Gaines (2012). “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman”, p.211, Bantam
  • You've got to bend with the wind or you're broken.

    Ernest J. Gaines, John Lowe (1995). “Conversations with Ernest Gaines”, p.128, Univ. Press of Mississippi
  • Only when the mind is free has the body a chance to be free. Yes, they must believe, they must believe. Because I know what it means to be a slave. I am a slave.

    Believe  
    Ernest J. Gaines (2004). “A Lesson Before Dying: A Novel”, p.255, Vintage
  • Without love for my fellow man and respect for nature, to me, life is an obscenity.

    Men  
    "National Medal of Arts". Academy of Achievemnt Interview, www.achievement.org. May 4, 2001.
  • Question everything. Every stripe, every star, every word spoken. Everything.

    Ernest J. Gaines (2012). “Bloodline: Five Stories”, p.95, Vintage
  • "What for?" I said. "What for, Tante Lou? He treated me the same way he treated her. He wants me to feel guilty, just as he wants her to feel guilty. Well, I'm not feeling guilty, Tante Lou. I didn't put him there. I do everything I know how to do to keep people like him from going there. He's not going to make me feel guilty."

    People   Feelings   Dying  
    Ernest J. Gaines (2004). “A Lesson Before Dying: A Novel”, p.123, Vintage
  • How do people come up with a date and a time to take life from another man? Who made them God?

    Men   People  
    Ernest J. Gaines (2004). “A Lesson Before Dying: A Novel”, p.159, Vintage
  • But let us say he was (guilty). Let us for a moment say he was (guilty). What justice would there be to take his life? Justice, gentlemen? Why, I would just as soon put a hog in the electric chair as this.

  • He told us that most of us would die violently, and those who did not would be brought down to the level of beasts.

    Ernest J. Gaines (2015). “A Lesson Before Dying”, p.65, Serpent's Tail
  • Everything's been said, but it needs saying again.

    Said  
    Ernest J. Gaines, John Lowe (1995). “Conversations with Ernest Gaines”, p.251, Univ. Press of Mississippi
  • 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.

    Eye   Dying   Fool  
    Ernest J. Gaines (2004). “A Lesson Before Dying: A Novel”, p.130, Vintage
  • Nietzsche said without music, life would be a mistake. To me, without books, life would be a mistake.

  • I write to try to find out who I am. One of my main themes is manliness. I think I'm trying to figure out what manliness really is.

  • I was raised by a lady that was crippled all her life but she did everything for me and she raised me. She washed our clothes, cooked our food, she did everything for us. I don't think I ever heard her complain a day in her life. She taught me responsibility towards my brother and sisters and the community.

    Live chat, cnn.com. May 13, 1999.
  • You learn from music, from watching great athletes at work - how disciplined they are, how they move. You learn these things by watching a shortstop at work, how he concentrates on one thing at a time. You learn from classic music, from the blues and jazz, from bluegrass. From all this, you learn how to sustain a great line without bringing in unnecessary words.

  • Now, about that mulatto teacher and me. There was no love there for each other. There was not even respect. We were enemies if anything. He hated me, and I knew it, and he knew I knew it. I didn't like him, but I needed him, needed him to tell me something that none of the others could or would.

    Teacher   Enemy   Dying  
    Ernest J. Gaines (2015). “A Lesson Before Dying”, p.67, Serpent's Tail
  • And that's all we are Jefferson, all of us on this earth, a piece of drifting wood. until we - each of us, individually- decide to become something else. I am still that piece of drifting wood, and those out there are no better. But you can be better.

    Ernest J. Gaines (2015). “A Lesson Before Dying”, p.191, Serpent's Tail
  • There will always be men struggling to change, and there will always be those who are controlled by the past.

    Ernest J. Gaines, John Lowe (1995). “Conversations with Ernest Gaines”, p.29, Univ. Press of Mississippi
  • Sometimes you got to hurt something to help something. Sometimes you have to plow under one thing in order for something else to grow.

  • When I'm sitting in the church alone, I can hear singing of the old people. I can hear their singing and I can hear their praying, and sometimes I hum one of their songs.

    People  
  • I want you to show them the difference between what they think you are and what you can be.

    Ernest J. Gaines (2015). “A Lesson Before Dying”, p.189, Serpent's Tail
  • I had to see and feel and be with the thing that I wanted to write about.

    "Author Ernest Gaines comes home to where his ancestors were enslaved" by Wayne Drash, www.cnn.com. November 9, 2010.
  • I have no more to say except this: We must live with our own conscience.

    Ernest J. Gaines (2015). “A Lesson Before Dying”, p.15, Serpent's Tail
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    Ernest Gaines quotes about: Dying Jazz Writing