Books, for me, are a home. Books don’t make a home – they are one, in the sense that just as you do with a door, you open a book, and you go inside. Inside there is a different kind of time and a different kind of space.
Interpretation
Books provide a sense of belonging and an escape into different realms of time and space.
In this quote, Jeanette Winterson expresses the idea that books are not just physical objects but rather places of refuge and exploration. They offer readers a chance to step into another reality, where they can experience stories, emotions, and ideas that transcend their everyday lives, creating a unique environment akin to a home that nurtures the mind and spirit.
In practice
Discussing the importance of literature in a speech about education.
What is remembered is not a deed in stone but a metaphor. Meta = above. Pheren = to carry. That which is carried above the literalness of life. A way of thinking that avoids the problems of gravity. The word won't let me down. The single word that can release me from all that unuttered weight.
Reading things that are relevant to the facts of your life is of limited value. The facts are, after all, only the facts, and the yearning passionate part of you will not be met there. That is why reading ourselves as a fiction as well as fact is so liberating. The wider we read the freer we become.
I have a list of titles that I leave at the [library] desk, because they are bound to be written some day, and it's best to be ahead of the queue.
Woolf wanted to say dangerous things in Orlando but she did not want to say them in the missionary position.
In that house, you will find my heart. You must break in, Henri, and get it back for me.' Was she mad? We had been talking figuratively. Her heart was in her body like mine. I tried to explain this to her, but she took my hand and put it against her chest. Feel for yourself.
History is a string full of knots, the best you can do is admire it, and maybe tie it up a bit more. History is a hammock for swinging and a game for playing.
Remember, it is no sign of weakness or defeat that your manuscript ends up in need of major surgery. This is a common occurrence in all writing, and among the best writers.
The dumbing down of America is evident in the slow decay of substantive content, a kind of celebration of ignorance.
The key to education is the experience of beauty.
Turning on the television set can turn off the process that transforms children into people... It is primarily through observing, playing, and working with others older and younger than himself that a child discovers both what he can do and who he can become — that he develops both his ability and his identity.
Studying entrepreneurshi p without doing it... is like studying the appreciation of music without listening to it.
Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it.
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