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.
True love allows each person to follow his or her own path, aware that doing so can never drive them apart.
I think there must have been some other girl printed somewhere in his heart, for he was a man of love and his wife was not a woman to show her feelings.
But who, if he be called upon to face Some awful moment to which Heaven has joined Great issues, good or bad for humankind, Is happy as a lover.
Maybe-- maybe love makes you suspicious and doubting. Is it true that when you love a woman you are never sure-- never sure of her because you aren't sure of yourself?
Our hearts grow tender with childhood memories and love of kindred, and we are better throughout the year for having, in spirit, become a child again at Christmas-time.
For you see, each day I love you more. Today more than yesterday and less than tomorrow.
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