Lee Smith Quotes

Powerful Lee Smith for Daily Growth

About Lee Smith

Lee Smith (born 1944) is an esteemed American novelist, short-story writer, and essayist, whose work poignantly explores the lives of rural Appalachian women. Born in Louisa, Virginia, Smith grew up in a close-knit family that instilled in her a deep appreciation for storytelling and regional culture. Smith's formative years were marked by her father's service in the Air Force, which resulted in frequent moves across the United States. These experiences contributed to her keen sense of place and people, as well as a unique perspective on American life beyond the Appalachian region. After earning her B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1967, Smith pursued a master's degree in English at Cornell University, where she honed her writing skills and solidified her commitment to telling tales rooted in the Appalachian landscape. Her first novel, "The Devil's Water," was published in 1979, followed by "Our Sils Maria, Marseilles, and Me" (1982), which received the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize for Fiction. Smith's most critically acclaimed work, however, is her novel "Secret Language of Women" (1985), a multi-generational saga that showcases the resilience and resourcefulness of Appalachian women. The book was selected as one of Time Magazine's Best Books of the Year. In 1994, Smith published her most successful novel, "Fair and Tender Ladies," which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction and remains a staple in Appalachian literature courses. In this seminal work, Smith crafts an epic tale of family, love, and loss set against the backdrop of the Great Depression and World War II. Throughout her illustrious career, Lee Smith has been recognized with numerous awards and honors, including two Guggenheim Fellowships, a National Endowment for the Arts grant, and the North Carolina Award for Literature in 2014. Today, Smith continues to live and write in Black Mountain, North Carolina, where she remains an integral voice in Appalachian literature and American fiction as a whole.

Interpretations of Popular Quotes

"Life is not a matter of milestones, but of moments."

This quote by Lee Smith emphasizes that life should not be measured by significant events or achievements (milestones), but rather by the everyday, fleeting, and often overlooked experiences (moments). It suggests that it's these small, meaningful interactions that make up a rich and fulfilling life. In other words, it's the accumulation of memories from these moments that give our lives meaning, not just reaching predefined goals or achievements.

"Memory is the treasure of the mind, and the mind the keeper of the memory."

This quote by Lee Smith suggests that memory, the ability to remember and recall past events, experiences, or knowledge, is valuable as it enriches our minds. The mind serves as a vault for these memories, preserving and organizing them over time. These recollections shape our identities, influence our decisions, and connect us to our personal and collective histories. Thus, memory can be seen as the treasure of the mind, with the mind acting as its guardian or custodian.

"Home was a place where people had funny little ways of doing things, and the love that was there made these ways as comforting and familiar as an old shoe."

This quote by Lee Smith emphasizes the unique characteristics and habits that define a family or home. The "funny little ways" refer to the quirks, traditions, or idiosyncrasies that make a place feel special and personal. The love within this environment is what brings comfort and familiarity, often making these eccentricities as treasured as an old, comfortable shoe. It suggests that home isn't just a physical location but also a feeling of belonging, warmth, and acceptance cultivated by the people and their shared experiences.

"In life, it's not where you go, it's who you travel with."

This quote emphasizes that the true value in experiences, particularly travels or journeys, lies not just in the destination but more so in the people we share those moments with. The company we keep greatly impacts our perspective, memories, and the overall richness of the experience. It suggests that meaningful connections made during such adventures are often more significant than any physical location visited.

"The past is never dead. It's not even past." (This quote is actually by William Faulkner, but often attributed to Lee Smith due to her Southern literary connections.)

This quote implies that the past continues to influence the present and future in significant ways, rather than becoming entirely separate or distant. The past, with its experiences, values, and lessons, remains embedded within us and shapes our current thoughts, actions, and decisions. In other words, the past is not something static or dead; instead, it's a dynamic force that actively informs our lives as we move forward.

Born Virginia Marshall but nicknamed Gig, my mother was a home economics teacher who had come all the way across the whole state of Virginia, from her home on the Eastern Shore to our little Appalachian coal town to marry my daddy, Ernest Smith, whose family had lived in these mountains for generations.

- Lee Smith

Mountains, Gig, Smith, Appalachian

I had always dreamed of living in Chapel Hill. When I was a college student at Hollins University in Virginia, I came down to Chapel Hill for summer school and just loved it.

- Lee Smith

College, Always, Chapel Hill

I have always been interested in religion, especially in forms of ecstatic religion, where people are touched directly by the Spirit and go completely out of themselves.

- Lee Smith

Always, Been, Ecstatic, Directly

Certainly I was a very religious child, a deeply weird and very emotional child, an only child with lots of imaginary friends and a very active imagination. I loved Sunday school and Bible camp and all that. I had my own white Bible with Jesus' words printed in red in the text; I even spoke at youth revivals.

- Lee Smith

Spoke, Religious, Very, Printed

For many of us, especially women, the gap between what we want or need and what our society expects of us is wide indeed, and we spend out lives trying to negotiate it. Trying to balance work and family, responsibilities and desires, all that stuff. It is not easy.

- Lee Smith

Society, Out, Our, Expects

I was raised in a little church, the Grundy Methodist Church, that was very straight-laced, but I had a friend whose mother spoke in tongues. I was just wild for this family. My own parents were older, and they were so over-protective. I just loved the 'letting go' that would happen when I went to church with my friend.

- Lee Smith

Church, Spoke, Very, Tongues

I think what happens to young writers is that they use up every life experience that they have had up to that point for their first novel. Then you have to come up with something for the second novel, but you really don't have anything to say.

- Lee Smith

Young, I Think, Use, Young Writers

I think as the world changes, we have to keep up. We have to note what is happening, and I think writing has always had a powerful corrective influence and possibility. We have to write about what's good, and we also have to write about parts of our culture that are not good, that are not working out. I think it takes a new eye.

- Lee Smith

Changes, I Think, Note, Possibility

People are so busy positioning themselves before the screen and talking on the damn cellphones, communicating, that we're not reading, and in fact we're not really communicating, either. We're not talking to each other. There's just all these screens and wires and technology in between.

- Lee Smith

Fact, Other, Before, Positioning

I write about people in small towns; I don't write about people living in big cities. My kind of storytelling depends upon people that have time to talk to each other.

- Lee Smith

Small, Storytelling, Big, Small Towns

I like a book. I like to read for four hours at a stretch. I think very few are the young people who are even capable of reading for four hours at a stretch, because it's such a bizarre thing for them to do. I am mourning this.

- Lee Smith

I Think, Very, Bizarre, Mourning

I am so sorry to see the state of reading in such decline. I think it says something really scary and terrible about us as a culture. I think it does have to do with everyone's total global embrace of technology.

- Lee Smith

I Think, About, Global, Decline

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