Ernest Gaines quotes

I think I'm a very religious person. I think I believe in God as much as any man does. I don't only believe in God, I know there's God. (Ernest Gaines)
All writers write about the past, and I try to make it come alive so you can see what happened. View quote
Ernest Gaines
Why is it that, as a culture, we are more comfortable seeing two men holding guns than holding hands? View quote
Ernest Gaines
Nietzsche said without music, life would be a mistake. To me, without books, life would be a mistake. View quote
Ernest Gaines
King is probably one of three men of this century that I'll call heroic. A fantastic man as far as I'm concerned, for all that he did. View quote
Ernest Gaines
Question everything. Every stripe, every star, every word spoken. Everything. View quote
Ernest Gaines
I have no more to say except this: We must live with our own conscience. View quote
Ernest Gaines
Words mean nothing. Action is the only thing. Doing. That's the only thing. View quote
Ernest Gaines
Today I must write a paragraph or a page better than I did yesterday. View quote
Ernest Gaines
There will always be men struggling to change, and there will always be those who are controlled by the past. View quote
Ernest Gaines
How do people come up with a date and a time to take life from another man? Who made them God? (Ernest Gaines)
The mark of fear is not easily removed. View quote
Ernest Gaines
I want you to show them the difference between what they think you are and what you can be. View quote
Ernest Gaines
I was never threatened...I never knew anyone who was lynched. But there was subtle racism every day of my life. You could not speak to a white man unless he spoke to you first. On the sidewalk, I'd have to move so a white person could walk by. View quote
Ernest Gaines
I would think a faith in God is one thing. I think that if we could change the whole world and keep the land is another thing. Change things yet keep keep the relationship is another thing. View quote
Ernest Gaines
In dialogue, I'm dealing with the sounds I've heard. One of the reasons I often write from first person or multiple points of view is to hear the voices of different characters. Omniscient narration becomes a problem because, for me, the omniscient is my own voice narrating the story and then bringing in characters for dialogue. View quote
Ernest Gaines
Sometimes you got to hurt something to help something. Sometimes you have to plow under one thing in order for something else to grow. View quote
Ernest Gaines
Without love for my fellow man and respect for nature, to me, life is an obscenity. View quote
Ernest Gaines
You've got to bend with the wind or you're broken. View quote
Ernest Gaines
Everything's been said, but it needs saying again. View quote
Ernest Gaines
I believe that the writer should tell a story. I believe in plot. I believe in creating characters and suspense. (Ernest Gaines)
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. View quote
Ernest Gaines
I wanted to be a writer. I wanted to say something about home. View quote
Ernest Gaines
I had to see and feel and be with the thing that I wanted to write about. View quote
Ernest Gaines
I try to write something that would interest anybody and keep them turning the page. You must have a plot and good storyline. View quote
Ernest Gaines