That is all the National Parks are about. Use, but do no harm.
Wallace StegnerRead
Are you a reader? If you aren't a reader, you might as well forget trying to be a writer.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Reading is essential for becoming a successful writer.
This quote by Wallace Stegner emphasizes the importance of reading as a foundational skill for anyone aspiring to write. It suggests that without exposure to written works and an understanding of different styles and ideas through reading, one cannot develop the skills necessary to be an effective writer themselves.
Themes
ReadingWritingEducationLiteratureSkills
In practice
Example use cases
In a writing workshop, to emphasize the importance of reading, I might say: 'Remember, as Wallace Stegner said, if you aren't a reader, forget about being a writer.'
More from Wallace Stegner
All quotes βTouch. It is touch that is the deadliest enemy of chastity, loyalty, monogamy, gentility with its codes and conventions and restraints. By touch we are betrayed and betray others ... an accidental brushing of shoulders or touching of hands ... hands laid on shoulders in a gesture of comfort that lies like a thief, that takes, not gives, that wants, not offers, that awakes, not pacifies. When one flesh is waiting, there is electricity in the merest contact.
Wallace StegnerRead
Hope was always out ahead of fact, possibility obscured the outlines of reality.
Wallace StegnerRead
Young writers should be encouraged to write, and discouraged from thinking they are writers.
Wallace StegnerRead
I was shaped by the west and have lived most of my life in it, and nothing would gratify me more than to see it in all its subregions and subcultures both prosperous and environmentally healthy, with a civilization to match its scenery.
Wallace StegnerRead
Most things break, including hearts. The lessons of life amount not to wisdom, but to scar tissue and callus.
Wallace StegnerRead
Similar quotes
I never heard of anyone who was really literate or who ever really loved books who wanted to suppress any of them. Censors only read a book with great difficulty, moving their lips as they puzzle out each syllable, when someone tells them that the book is unfit to read.
Robertson DaviesRead
Most of the time each person is immersed in the details of one special part of the whole and does not think of how what they are doing relates to the larger picture. For example, in education, a teacher might say in the next class he was going to "explain Young's modulus and how to measure it," rather than, "I am going to educate the students and prepare them for their future careers".
Richard HammingRead
No man not inspired can make a good speech without preparation.
Daniel WebsterRead
I simply want to celebrate the fact that right near your home, year in and year out, a community college is quietly - and with very little financial encouragement - saving lives and minds. I canβt think of a more efficient, hopeful or egalitarian machine, with the possible exception of the bicycle.
Kay RyanRead
For it is humanly certain that most of us remember very little of what we have read. To open almost any book a second time is to be reminded that we had forgotten well-nigh everything that the writer told us. Parting from the narrator and his narrative, we retain only a fading impression; and he, as it were, takes the book away from us and tucks it under his arm.
Siegfried SassoonRead
Every child's taste is different. Don't worry if they're not reading 'War and Peace' at age 12. First, build a good foundation and a positive attitude about reading by letting them pick the stories they enjoy. Make friends with a bookseller or librarian. They are a wealth of information on finding books that kids enjoy.
Rick RiordanRead