I love writing for young people. It's the literature that was most important to me, the stories that shaped me and informed my own journey as a writer.
Interpretation
The author expresses the significance of writing for young people, reflecting on how it shaped their own life.
In this quote, Jacqueline Woodson emphasizes the profound impact that literature aimed at young audiences has had on her personal development as a writer. She highlights the importance of storytelling in nurturing young minds, suggesting that the stories they encounter can significantly influence their understanding of the world and their own identities.
In practice
A teacher might use this quote to inspire students to appreciate the literature they read.
'Brown Girl Dreaming' was a book I had a lot of doubts about - mainly, would this story be meaningful to anyone besides me? My editor, Nancy Paulsen, kept assuring me, but there were moments when I was in a really sad place with the story for so many reasons. It wasn't an easy book to write - emotionally, physically, or creatively.
In the midst of observing the world and coming to consciousness, I was becoming a writer, and what I wanted to put on the page were the stories of people who looked like me.
Sometimes you do have to laugh to keep from crying. And sometimes the world feels all right and good and kind of like it's becoming nice again around you. And you realize it, and realize how happy you are in it, and you just gotta laugh.
I don't want anyone to walk through the world feeling invisible ever again.
The strength of my mother is something I didn't pay attention to for so long. Here she was, this single mom, who was part of the Great Migration, who was part of a Jim Crow south, who said, 'I'm getting my kids out of here. I'm creating opportunities for these young people by any means necessary.'
I would have written 'Brown Girl Dreaming' if no one had ever wanted to buy it, if it went nowhere but inside a desk drawer that my own children pulled out one day to find a tool for survival, a symbol of how strong we are and how much we've come through.
A child is not a vase to be filled, but a fire to be lit.
There's a disease that young writers are susceptible to, which is, I will do this because I can - hubris, I suppose - without stopping to work out why.
Say all you have to say in the fewest possible words, or your reader will be sure to skip them; and in the plainest possible words or he will certainly misunderstand them.
You can solve most of your writing problems if you stop after every sentence and ask: what does the reader need to know next?
Instructors should not only be skilful in those sciences which they teach, but have skill in the method of teaching, and patience in the practice.
There are many things that go to make up an education, but there are just two things without which no man can ever hope to have an education and these two things are character and good manners.
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