When someone says to me, 'I love your book - I read it in a day,' I want to tell them to go back and read it again.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the depth of literature and the importance of thorough understanding over superficial reading.
Jacqueline Woodson's quote reflects the idea that reading a book in a single day may not allow for a true appreciation of its content and messages. It suggests the importance of revisiting literature to uncover deeper meanings and insights that are often missed in a rushed reading experience.
In practice
During a book club, you can share this quote to encourage deeper discussions about the text.
'Brown Girl Dreaming' was a book I had a lot of doubts about - mainly, would this story be meaningful to anyone besides me? My editor, Nancy Paulsen, kept assuring me, but there were moments when I was in a really sad place with the story for so many reasons. It wasn't an easy book to write - emotionally, physically, or creatively.
In the midst of observing the world and coming to consciousness, I was becoming a writer, and what I wanted to put on the page were the stories of people who looked like me.
Sometimes you do have to laugh to keep from crying. And sometimes the world feels all right and good and kind of like it's becoming nice again around you. And you realize it, and realize how happy you are in it, and you just gotta laugh.
I don't want anyone to walk through the world feeling invisible ever again.
The strength of my mother is something I didn't pay attention to for so long. Here she was, this single mom, who was part of the Great Migration, who was part of a Jim Crow south, who said, 'I'm getting my kids out of here. I'm creating opportunities for these young people by any means necessary.'
I would have written 'Brown Girl Dreaming' if no one had ever wanted to buy it, if it went nowhere but inside a desk drawer that my own children pulled out one day to find a tool for survival, a symbol of how strong we are and how much we've come through.
An editor is a person who knows more about writing than writers do but who has escaped the terrible desire to write.
Marriage can wait, education cannot.
I forget most of what I read, just as I do most of what I have eaten, but I know that both contribute no less to the conservation of my mind and my body on that account.
The more you read, the more you will write. The better the stuff you read, the better the stuff you will write.
The bookful blockhead, ignorantly read With loads of learned lumber in his head.
The greatest obstacle to those who hope to reform American education is complacency.
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