Ernest J. Gaines Quotes

Ernest James Gaines was an American author whose works have been taught in college classrooms and translated into many languages, including French, Spanish, German, Russian and Chinese. Four of his works were made into television movies.His 1993 novel, A Lesson Before Dying, won the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction. Gaines was a MacArthur Foundation fellow, was awarded the National Humanities Medal, and was inducted into the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres as a Chevalier. Wikipedia  

✵ 15. January 1933 – 5. November 2019
Ernest J. Gaines photo

Works

A Lesson Before Dying
A Lesson Before Dying
Ernest J. Gaines
Ernest J. Gaines: 11   quotes 2   likes

Famous Ernest J. Gaines Quotes

“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.”

In an interview with Patricia Rickels, as quoted in John Lowe (1995) Conversations with Ernest Gaines, University Press of Mississippi, p. 131

Ernest J. Gaines Quotes

“All writers write about the past, and I try to make it come alive so you can see what happened.”

In an interview with Religion & Ethics Newsweekly http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/2011/02/18/february-18-2011-ernest-gaines/8169/, February 18, 2011

“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.”

Response after being asked "Do you regard yourself as a religious person?", in an interview with Religion & Ethics Newsweekly http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/2011/02/18/february-18-2011-ernest-gaines/8169/, February 18, 2011

“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.”

Gaines response after being asked: "Do you also see things in that world that you wish could be retained?", as quoted by Marcia Gaudet and Carl WootonPorch in Talk with Ernest Gaines: Conversations on the Writer's Craft http://books.google.es/books?id=JtRNfST4g_QC&hl=es&source=gbs_navlinks_s (1990)

“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.”

On his experiences with segregation (as quoted in “Ernest J. Gaines: A Great American Author Pays It Forward to a New Generation of Black Writers” https://www.theroot.com/ernest-j-gaines-a-great-american-author-pays-it-forwa-1790858566 in The Root; 2015 Jan 22)

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