Kids need to encounter kids like themselves - kids who can sometimes be crabby and fresh and rebellious, kids who talk back and disobey, tell fibs and get into trouble, and are nonetheless still likable and redeemable.
Judith ViorstRead
Starting after 60, I thought, 'I'm not going to be able to write a book of poems on the 70s. It's going to be all moans and groans and complaints, and what is there to laugh about?' But I found plenty to laugh about.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Even in challenging times, there is often humor and joy to be found.
Judith Viorst reflects on the idea that while it may seem difficult to find positivity or humor in life's struggles, especially later in life, she discovered that there are still many reasons to laugh and find joy. This suggests that even in the face of adverse circumstances, one's perspective can reveal unexpected humor and resilience.
Themes
HumorLifePoetryResiliencePerspective
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be shared during a literary discussion on the themes of humor in literature.
More from Judith Viorst
All quotes →The need to become a separate self is as urgent as the yearning to merge forever. And as long as we, not our mother, initiate parting, and as long as our mother remains reliably there, it seems possible to risk, and even to revel in, standing alone.
Judith ViorstRead
Lust is what keeps you wanting to do it even when you have no desire to be with each other. Love is what makes you want to be with each other even when you have no desire to do it.
Judith ViorstRead
Growing up means letting go of the dearest megalomaniacal dreams of our childhood. Growing up means knowing they can't be fulfilled. Growing up means gaining the wisdom and the skills to get what we want within the limitations imposed by reality - a reality which consists of diminished powers, restricted freedoms and, with the people we love, imperfect connections.
Judith ViorstRead
Similar quotes
From breakfast, or noon at the latest, to dinner, I am mostly on horseback, Attending to My Farm or other concerns, which I find healthful to my body, mind, and affairs.
Thomas JeffersonRead
Lente, lente currite, noctis equi. Translation: Run slowly, slowly, horses of the night.
OvidRead
Life is not a spectator sport.
Jackie RobinsonRead
People spend a lifetime thinking abouthow they would really like to live. I asked my friends and no one seems to know very clearly. To me, it's very clear now. I wish my life could have been like the years when I was writing 'Love in the Time of Cholera.'
Gabriel Garcia MarquezRead
I am an excitable person who only understands life lyrically, musically, in whom feelings are much stronger as reason. I am so thirsty for the marvelous that only the marvelous has power over me. Anything I can not transform into something marvelous, I let go. Reality doesn't impress me. I only believe in intoxication, in ecstasy, and when ordinary life shackles me, I escape, one way or another. No more walls.
Anais NinRead
I can never read all the books I want; I can never be all the people I want and live all the lives I want. I can never train myself in all the skills I want. And why do I want? I want to live and feel all the shades, tones and variations of mental and physical experience possible in life. And I am horribly limited.
Sylvia PlathRead