Ma's still nodding. "You're the one who matters, though. Just you." I shake my head till it's wobbling because there's no just me.
Writing stories is my way of scratching that itch: my escape from the claustrophobia of individuality. It lets me, at least for a while, live more than one life, walk more than one path. Reading, of course, can do the same.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Writing and reading provide an escape from the confines of individual experience, allowing exploration of different lives and paths.
In this quote, Emma Donoghue expresses the profound impact of storytelling and reading on the human experience. Through writing stories, she finds a means to transcend her individual limitations and explore multiple perspectives, experiences, and narratives, evoking a sense of freedom and possibility. Similarly, reading allows individuals to step into the shoes of others and experience different lives, broadening their understanding of the world.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the importance of literature, you might say, 'As Emma Donoghue wisely noted, writing stories is my way of scratching that itch.'
More from Emma Donoghue
All quotes →Ah yes, the paradox of publicity is that even as we do it, we know it's killing off the chance of another reader happening across our book in the ideal state of innocence.
At the door, there was one of those moment when two people realize that they like each other more than they know each other. This is nicer than the opposite situation, but more awkward. You try to remember the protocol for touching. You hate to gush, or presume to much, yet you are unwilling to let the moment pass without without some gesture
You cannot predict literary success; the only way you can possibly aim for it is to do your thing and do it well.
Books are the air I breathe, so I don't notice the seasons.
...real loneliness is having no one to miss. Think yourself lucky you've known something worth missing.
Similar quotes
It is not the right angle that attracts me, nor the straight line, hard and inflexible, created by man. What attracts me is the free and sensual curve - the curve that I find in the mountains of my country, in the sinuous course of its rivers, in the body of the beloved woman.
Everything we know about Hamilton, we knew when he was alive, because he told us.
As nearly as possible in the spirit of Matthew Salinger, age one, urging a luncheon companion to accept a cool lima bean, I urge my editor, mentor and (heaven help him) closest friend, William Shawn, genius domus of The New Yorker, lover of the long shot, protector of the unprolific, defender of the hopelessly flamboyant, most unreasonably modest of born great artist-editors to accept this pretty skimpy-looking book.
The most annoying and full- of- crap thing a writer says is, I write only for myself, I don't care if anyone reads it. A writer without a reader doesn't exist.
You know, sound was still a fairly new thing when I came into movies. And the reason musicals happened is because of sound. They could put music in the picture! That's how it all began.
Beauty without expression is boring.