Ernest J. Gaines

thumb|Ernest J.Gaines in 2015 Ernest James Gaines (January 15, 1933 – November 5, 2019) was an African-American author whose books include The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, A Lesson Before Dying, and A Gathering of Old Men. 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 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, 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 (1990) 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. On how he handled dialogue in his works in “An Interview with Ernest J. Gaines” in The Missouri Review (1999 Dec 1) When people hear stories, they identify more closely with the characters. When I read aloud, people always come up to me and say, “I understand it much better now that I’ve heard you read it. I can hear the characters’ voices much clearer…” On how his reading aloud helped frame the character’s voice in “An Interview with Ernest J. Gaines” in The Missouri Review (1999 Dec 1) 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, February 18, 2011 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” in The Root; 2015 Jan 22) Quotes about Ernest J. Gaines (Any favorite Mississippi or Louisiana authors you’d like to recommend?) There are so many: Ernest Gaines, Natasha Trethewey, Donna Tartt, Richard Wright, Margaret Walker and Robert Olen Butler are just a few I love. Jesmyn Ward Interview (2017) External links Category:1933 births Category:2019 deaths Category:Academics from the United States Category:Novelists from the United States Category:Screenwriters from the United States Category:Short story writers from the United States Category:African Americans Category:People from Louisiana Category:Postmodern authors Category:MacArthur Fellows Category:Stanford University alumni