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What a writer can do, what a fiction writer or a poet or an essay writer can do is re-engage people with their own humanity.
Barbara Kingsolver
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Writers have the power to connect readers to their own human experiences and emotions.

In this quote, Barbara Kingsolver highlights the transformative ability of writers, particularly those of fiction, poetry, and essays, to evoke and reignite a sense of humanity within their readers. Through storytelling and creative expression, writers can remind individuals of their shared experiences, emotions, and the deeper aspects of what it means to be human, fostering empathy and self-reflection.

Themes

WriterHumanityConnectionEmotionCreativity

In practice

Example use cases

A writer might use this quote in a workshop about the impact of storytelling on readers.

More from Barbara Kingsolver

Sadness is more or less like a head cold - with patience, it passes. Depression is like cancer.
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I'm of a fearsome mind to throw my arms around every living librarian who crosses my path, on behalf of the souls they never knew they saved.
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I did it to win love, and to prove myself capable. Not to move mountains. In my opinions, mountains don't move. They only look changed when you look down on them from great height.
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Memory is a complicated thing, a relative to truth, but not its twin.
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Empathy is really the opposite of spiritual meanness. It's the capacity to understand that every war is both won and lost. And that someone else's pain is as meaningful as your own.
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