It was an overcast late November morning, the grass splintered by hoarfrost, and winter grinning through the gaps in the clouds like a bad clown peering through the curtains before the show begins.
John ConnollyRead
Without a human voice to read them aloud, or a pair of wide eyes following them by flashlight beneath a blanket, they had no real existence in our world. They were like seeds in the beak of a bird, waiting to fall to earth, or the notes of a song laid out on a sheet, yearning for an instrument to bring their music into being.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the importance of human interaction in giving life and meaning to ideas and creations.
In this quote, John Connolly suggests that written words and creative ideas are inert without the engagement of human beings to bring them to life. Just as seeds need soil to grow and melodies require instruments to be heard, thoughts and stories gain their true significance when they are shared, interpreted, and experienced by others.
Themes
Human InteractionCreativityMeaningExistenceStories
In practice
Example use cases
During a book club meeting to emphasize the impact of storytelling.
More from John Connolly
All quotes →For in every adult there dwells the child that was, and in every child there lies the adult that will be.
John ConnollyRead
We all have our routines," he said softly."But they must have a purpose and provide an outcome that we can see and take some comfort from, or else they have no use at all. Without that, they are like the endless pacings of a caged animal. If they are not madness itself, then they are a prelude to it.
John ConnollyRead
He would talk to them of stories and books, and explain to them how stories wanted to be told and books wanted to be read, and how everything that they ever needed to know about life and the land of which he wrote, or about any land or realm that they could imagine, was contained in books. And some of the children understood, and some did not.
John ConnollyRead
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