Don't worry about how pretty (the story) sounds, how lilting it is, and the imagery, and the metaphor, all that. Most readers don't care. It's the people in your book that matter.
Terry McmillanRead
Let me put it this way: when I read, I learned the world was not as small as my house. And that everybody in my home town was not representative of the way people in the world were raised. And that was what saved me.
Interpretation
This quote highlights how reading expands one's understanding of the world beyond their immediate surroundings.
Terry McMillan emphasizes the transformative power of reading in her quote, illustrating how literature allowed her to perceive the vast diversity of life experiences beyond her hometown. By revealing the broader spectrum of human existence, reading provided her with a sense of salvation, suggesting that increased awareness and understanding can lead to personal growth and liberation from narrow perspectives.
In practice
During a literacy event to inspire children, I could use this quote to show them how books can open up their understanding of the world.
Don't worry about how pretty (the story) sounds, how lilting it is, and the imagery, and the metaphor, all that. Most readers don't care. It's the people in your book that matter.
Unless children have strong education and strong families and strong communities and decent housing, it's not enough to go sit in at a lunch counter.
When you read a piece of writing that you admire, send a note of thanks to the author.
A lot of the fun lies in trying to penetrate the mystery; and this is best done by saying over the lines to yourself again and again, till they pass through the stage of sounding like nonsense, and finally return to a full sense that had at first escaped notice.
I got a chance to listen to and watch Thelonious Monk and his quartet play two shows a night, for six weeks. It was a great education. There was my university, man.
I don't care who writes a nation's laws - or crafts its advanced treaties - if I can write its economics textbooks.
Anyone who cannot cope with mathematics is not fully human. At best, he is a tolerable subhuman who has learned to wear his shoes, bathe, and not make messes in the house.
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