(M)aybe we too busy being flowers or fairies or strawberries instead of something honest and worthy of respect . . . you know . . . like being people.
Toni Cade BambaraRead
I've never been convinced that experience is linear, circular, or even random. It just is. I try to put it in some kind of order to extract meaning from it, to bring meaning to it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Experience doesn't have a set pattern; its significance is derived from how we interpret it.
In this quote, Toni Cade Bambara expresses skepticism about categorizing experiences into simple patterns, like linear or circular. Instead, she emphasizes the subjective nature of experience, suggesting that while we may attempt to organize our experiences to find meaning, the experiences themselves exist as they are, independent of our interpretations.
Themes
ExperienceMeaningInterpretationWisdomUnderstanding
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a discussion about personal growth and the value of our life experiences.
More from Toni Cade Bambara
All quotes →Take away the miseries and you take away some folks' reason for living.
Toni Cade BambaraRead
Write a lot and hit the streets. A writer who doesn't keep up with what's out there ain't gonna be out there.
Toni Cade BambaraRead
I'll be damned if I want most folks out there to do unto me what they do unto themselves.
Toni Cade BambaraRead
The dream is real, my friends. The failure to make it work is the unreality.
Toni Cade BambaraRead
Similar quotes
No alibi will save you from accepting the responsibility.
Napoleon HillRead
I think imperfections are important, just as mistakes are important. You only get to be good by making mistakes, and you only get to be real by being imperfect.
Julianne MooreRead
It's important to have people who are absolutely willing to say you're wrong or who have a totally different perspective than you do on everything. Fresh ideas are hard to come by, and good ones are even harder.
Shonda RhimesRead
It's a great lesson about not being too precious about your writing. You have to try your hardest to be at the top of your game and improve every joke you can until the last possible second, and then you have to let it go. You can't be that kid standing at the top of the waterslide, overthinking it...You have to let people see what you wrote.
Tina FeyRead
Hofstadter's Law: It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's Law
Douglas HofstadterRead
Talent, will and genius are natural phenomena like the lake, the volcano, the mountain, the wind, the star, the cloud.
George SandRead