American writer (1936- )
It's harder to kill people. The empathy is so much stronger that the mind must invent new reasons. But, if we can somehow link it to our own survival, the mind will make the devious twists and turns necessary to rationalize it. We're very good at that.
JEAN M. AUEL
The Shelters of Stone
I collect art. That's my weakness. I keep saying, "We've got to put a moratorium on it, we don't have room," but I keep buying it.
JEAN M. AUEL
"Where I write: Jean M. Auel works late in her Southwest Portland condo", Oregon Live, September 27, 2011
I got the idea for the story of a young woman living with people who were different, late one cold winter night in January 1977, but I don't know where it came from. I had never written fiction, though I had been reading it all my life. I discovered when I sat down to try it that it was fun, except I didn't know what I was writing about. I had never studied archaeology or anthropology. I knew how to find out, though. Libraries are wonderful. They started me on a remarkable odyssey that I'm still in the midst of. They opened my eyes to the fascinating story of our Ice Age ancestors that modern science has to tell ... not of knuckle-dragging apes, but the human story; and they gave me the means to learn how to tell it with books on how to write fiction. I got excited by it, and all the determination and purpose I had been devoting to work, school, and children focused into writing.
JEAN M. AUEL
Copperfield Review, April 28, 2012
In a world so empty of human life, there was comfort in the thought that an invisible realm of spirits was aware of their existence, cared about their actions, and perhaps directed their steps. Even a stern or inimical spirit who cared enough to demand certain actions of appeasement was better than the heartless disregard of a harsh and indifferent world, in which their lives were entirely in their own hands, with no one else to turn to in time of need, not even in their thoughts.
JEAN M. AUEL
The Plains of Passage
I love being able to learn whatever I want and earn a living at it. Research is fun; writing is hard work.
JEAN M. AUEL
Copperfield Review, April 28, 2012