If you send up a weather vane or put your thumb up in the air every time you want to do something different, to find out what people are going to think about it, you're going to limit yourself. That's a very strange way to live.
Jessye NormanRead
I read everything. I'll read a John Grisham novel, I'll sit and read a whole book of poems by Maya Angelou, or I'll just read some Mary Oliver - this is a book that was given to me for Christmas. No particular genre. And I read in French, and I read in German, and I read in English. I love to see how other people use language.
Interpretation
The quote expresses the joy and importance of reading diverse genres and languages, emphasizing a love for language and literature.
Jessye Norman articulates her deep appreciation for literature in various forms and languages. By embracing a wide array of genres, from novels to poetry, she highlights the beauty of language and how different authors express thoughts and emotions uniquely. This perspective underscores the notion that reading broadly enriches one's understanding and enjoyment of literary art.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of literacy, this quote could emphasize the benefits of reading various genres.
If you send up a weather vane or put your thumb up in the air every time you want to do something different, to find out what people are going to think about it, you're going to limit yourself. That's a very strange way to live.
My parents said to us, practically on a daily basis, that we were as good as anyone else on this earth, and that we would simply have to work harder in order to show that.
Problems arise in that one has to find a balance between what people need from you and what you need for yourself.
I am grateful that my horizons were not narrowed at the outset.
As for my voice, it cannot be categorised - and I like it that way, because I sing things that would be considered in the dramatic, mezzo or spinto range.
It is still more likely that a woman's power would be seen as aggression, and a man's power would be seen as assertion.
Leisure and curiosity might soon make great advances in useful knowledge, were they not diverted by minute emulation and laborious trifles.
What if there was a library which held every book? Not every book on sale, or every important book, or even every book in English, but simply every book - a key part of our planet's cultural legacy.
I'm a visual thinker, really bad at algebra. There's others that are a pattern thinker. These are the music and math minds. They think in patterns instead of pictures. Then there's another type that's not a visual thinker at all, and they're the ones that memorize all of the sports statistics, all of the weather statistics.
The dream begins, most of the time, with a teacher who believes in you.
Libraries store the energy that fuels the imagination. They open up windows to the world and inspire us to explore and achieve, and contribute to improving our quality of life. Libraries change lives for the better.
Although the teachers or the students are not the same, the person in charge of education is being formed or re-formed as he/she teaches, and the person who is being taught forms him/herself in the process. ...There is, in fact, no teaching without learning.
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