Writing for me is cutting out the fat and getting to the meaning.
James McbrideRead
We would not have been a successful family without my father and stepfather, who were working-class men with better dreams for their children. We just wore them out.
Interpretation
The quote highlights the dedication of working-class fathers who strive for a better future for their children.
James McBride reflects on the influence of his father and stepfather in shaping his family's success. He acknowledges the hard work and sacrifices made by these working-class men, who held greater aspirations for their children's lives, ultimately leading to the family's achievements, even if it meant exhausting their own efforts.
In practice
During a family gathering, this quote could be shared to honor the hard work of parents.
Writing for me is cutting out the fat and getting to the meaning.
I felt like a Tinker toy kid building my own self out of one of those toy building sets; for as she laid her life before me, I reassembled the tableau of her words like a picture puzzle, and as I did, so my own life was rebuilt.
Sometimes it seemed like the truth was a bandy-legged soul who dashed from one side of the world to the other and I could never find him.
I'm trying to get Americans to see that we're all pretty much the same. I believe it; I was taught God doesn't have a color. I want to better the planet a little bit.
It would be nice if we redefined what we meant by 'war story.' If you're making $15,000 a year living in a certain area of Portland, trying to make it with three kids and no husband, that's a kind of war.
When my mother left home, her family sat shivah for her, more because my father was not Jewish than because he was black.
My mother grew up with each of her children - whatever your age, that's the age she'd be when she listened to your stories. She never belittled our problems. It made for something permanent and reliable.
We support each other in the Coppola family. We love the idea of everyone getting his place in the sun.
I always like to see enlightened parents like that; it gives me hope for the future.
Many things we need can wait. The child cannot. Now is the time his bones are formed, his mind developed. To him we cannot say tomorrow, his name is today.
Parents remain our touchstones, fellow travelers, even after death. They are both missing and present.
I'm a 21st-century kid trapped in a 19th-century family.
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