Happiness: We rarely feel it. I would buy it, beg it, steal it, Pay in coins of dripping blood For this one transcendent good.
Amy LowellRead
All books are either dreams or swords, you can cut, or you can drug, with words.
Interpretation
Books can be powerful tools for both inspiration and influence.
In this quote, Amy Lowell suggests that books have the dual capacity to inspire readers, akin to dreams, and to empower or challenge them, much like swords. Words possess the ability to heal or soothe (like a drug) or to provoke thought and create change (like a cutting sword), emphasizing the profound impact literature can have on individuals and society.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of education, one might say, 'As Amy Lowell said, all books are either dreams or swords, showing how literature can inspire and transform lives.'
Every novel is an equal collaboration between the writer and the reader and it is the only place in the world where two strangers can meet on terms of absolute intimacy.
Is 'The Wind in the Willows' a children's book? Is 'Alice in Wonderland?' Is 'Treasure Island?' These are masterpieces which we read with pleasure as children, but with how much more pleasure when we are grown-up.
... and the very folds of the curtains contained secrets and sighs.
People without hope not only don't write novels, but what is more to the point, they don't read them.
I remember going into a bookshop, and the only book I saw with a black child on the cover was 'A Thief in the Village' by James Berry, and I thought, 'Is this still the state of publishing?' Then I thought, 'Either I can whine about it or try to do something about it.'
If we can't stamp out literature in the country, we can at least stop its being brought in from outside.
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