I don’t think I will get married,” Polly said as she stood up. “I’m going to train to be a hero instead.
Diana Wynne JonesRead
It does not seem to me that I have the right to foist a story on people, most of whom are children who should be learning all the time, unless I am learning from it too.
Interpretation
What this quote means
One should not share stories or lessons with others unless they are also gaining knowledge from the experience.
Diana Wynne Jones emphasizes the reciprocal nature of storytelling and education. She suggests that sharing stories, particularly with children, carries a responsibility; the storyteller must also be engaged in a learning process, ensuring that the narrative is beneficial and insightful for both the audience and the teller. This approach fosters a mutual growth and understanding, particularly in educational settings.
Themes
StorytellingLearningEducationResponsibilityReciprocity
In practice
Example use cases
During a workshop on childhood education, this quote can be used to highlight the importance of relatable and meaningful storytelling.
More from Diana Wynne Jones
All quotes →Imagination doesn’t just mean making things up. It means thinking things through, solving them, or hoping to do so, and being just distant enough to be able to laugh at things that are normally painful. Head teachers would call this escapism, but they would be entirely wrong. I would call fantasy the most serious, and the most useful, branch of writing there is. And this is why I don’t, and never would, write Real Books.
Diana Wynne JonesRead
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