I am a writer who happens to love women. I am not a lesbian who happens to write.
Interpretation
The quote reflects the speaker's identity as a writer, emphasizing that their love for women is an integral part of who they are, rather than defining their identity.
Jeanette Winterson's quote expresses a celebration of her identity as both a writer and a person who loves women. By stating that she is a writer first, she suggests that her passion for writing transcends her sexual orientation, positioning her experiences and insights as a woman in love as a pivotal aspect of her creative expression, rather than a limiting factor of her identity.
In practice
This quote could be shared during a panel discussion about women's representation in literature.
What is remembered is not a deed in stone but a metaphor. Meta = above. Pheren = to carry. That which is carried above the literalness of life. A way of thinking that avoids the problems of gravity. The word won't let me down. The single word that can release me from all that unuttered weight.
Reading things that are relevant to the facts of your life is of limited value. The facts are, after all, only the facts, and the yearning passionate part of you will not be met there. That is why reading ourselves as a fiction as well as fact is so liberating. The wider we read the freer we become.
I have a list of titles that I leave at the [library] desk, because they are bound to be written some day, and it's best to be ahead of the queue.
Woolf wanted to say dangerous things in Orlando but she did not want to say them in the missionary position.
In that house, you will find my heart. You must break in, Henri, and get it back for me.' Was she mad? We had been talking figuratively. Her heart was in her body like mine. I tried to explain this to her, but she took my hand and put it against her chest. Feel for yourself.
History is a string full of knots, the best you can do is admire it, and maybe tie it up a bit more. History is a hammock for swinging and a game for playing.
a laotong relationship is made by choice...when we first looked in each other's eyes in the palanquin I felt something special pass between us--like a spark to start a fire or a seed to grow rice. But a single spark is not enough to warm a room nor is a single seed enough to grow a fruitful crop. Deep love--true-heart love--must grow.
In springtime, the only pretty ring time Birds sing, hey ding A-ding, a-ding Sweet lovers love the springβ
Some people don't understand the promises they're making when they make them," I said. "Right, of course. But you keep the promise anyway. That's what love is. Love is keeping the promise anyway.
Every act of love is a work of peace no matter how small.
I think we dream so we don't have to be apart so long. If we're in each other's dreams, we can play together all night.
The moon gives you light, and the bugles and the drums give you music, and my heart, O my soldiers, my veterans, my heart gives you love.
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