If to live is to progress, if you are lucky, from foolishness to

The words of Jane Smiley—“If to live is to progress, if you are lucky, from foolishness to wisdom, then to write novels is to broadcast the various stages of your foolishness.”—speak with both humility and triumph. They remind us that the path of life is not straight into wisdom but a stumbling journey through error, misjudgment, and folly. To be human is to err, but to grow is to transform that foolishness into deeper understanding. And for the novelist, each book becomes a record of that transformation, a mirror of the self as it once was.

This utterance reveals the intimate vulnerability of creation. A novelist does not only tell stories of others; in truth, they expose fragments of themselves, their passions, misconceptions, and struggles at the time of writing. What seems wise today may appear foolish tomorrow, yet it is this very record of change that becomes precious. For to write novels is to leave behind the trail of one’s growth, for all to see, without disguise.

History offers us the tale of Leo Tolstoy, who in his youth wrote works like War and Peace, brimming with grandeur, military glory, and sweeping visions of history. Yet in later life, he denounced much of his earlier thought, embracing simplicity, spirituality, and pacifism. His writings reveal the arc of a man moving from one vision of truth to another, exposing the stages of his foolishness as he grew toward what he believed was wisdom. His novels, read in sequence, are less monuments of perfection and more the record of a soul in motion.

The quote also teaches us to value imperfection. In a world that often demands mastery, Smiley reminds us that the beauty of art lies in its honesty. To reveal one’s foolishness is not shameful, but noble, for it allows others to recognize their own journey reflected in another’s words. Every misstep recorded in prose becomes a stepping stone, not only for the writer, but for the reader who walks alongside them.

Let this wisdom endure: do not despise the foolishness of your youth, nor hide the errors that shaped you. For they are the soil from which wisdom grows, and to share them is to guide others on their own path. As Jane Smiley teaches, the writer’s gift is not perfection but progress—the courage to show the world each stage of the soul’s becoming, until foolishness ripens, through time and struggle, into wisdom.