Writing is both bomb and bomb disposal-a necessary shattering of cliche and assumption, and a powerful defusing of the soul-destroying messages of modern life (that nothing matters, nothing changes, money is everything, etc). Writing is a state of being as well as an act of doing.
Interpretation
Writing serves to challenge negative assumptions and beliefs, while also being a profound form of self-expression.
In this quote, Jeanette Winterson portrays writing as a dual force—it disrupts established norms and clichés that can mentally imprison individuals, and simultaneously acts as a therapeutic practice that liberates one's thoughts and feelings. Winterson emphasizes that writing is not just about putting words on paper; it represents a deeper state of existence where one can confront societal truths and personal realities.
In practice
Discussing the importance of writing in a literature class.
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.
I try to help people realize their dreams by using magic to tell stories that educate, move, and inspire.
Every man has a different idea of what's beautiful, and it's best to take the gesture, the shadow of the branch, and let the mind create the tree.
Thoughts create a new heaven, a new firmament, a new source of energy, from which new arts flow.
What reinforces the content of a photograph is the sense of rhythm - the relationship between shapes and values.
Writing ought either to be the manufacture of stories for which there is a market demand - a business as safe and commendable as making soap or breakfast foods - or it should be an art, which is always a search for something for which there is no market demand, something new and untried, where the values are intrinsic and have nothing to do with standardized values.
I wear anything of culture, from the Earth or beyond. The whole planet is my shop.
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