Reading is the unbelievably healthy way _x000D_ my attention deficit disorder medicates itself. _x000D_ Reading is escape, and the opposite of escape; it's a way to _x000D_ make contact with reality after a day of making things up.
Nora EphronRead
You always think that a bolt of lightning is going to strike and your parents will magically change into the people you wish they were, or back into the people they used to be.
Interpretation
What this quote means
We often wish for our parents to change into our ideal versions of them, but such changes rarely happen magically.
Nora Ephron's quote highlights the common human tendency to hope for a transformation in loved ones, particularly parents, imagining that they might fulfill our expectations or return to a prior ideal state. This reflects deep emotional ties and expectations we place on family relationships, indicating that we may live in a fantasy of change rather than accepting people as they are.
Themes
ChangeExpectationsParentsRelationshipsAcceptanceFamily
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used during a family therapy session to illustrate the struggles with parental expectations.
More from Nora Ephron
All quotes →Reading makes me feel I've accomplished something, learned something, become a better person. ... Reading is bliss.
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I just want to go on making movies, and some of them will be completely meaningless, except, of course, to me.
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Every so often I would look at my women friends who were happily married and didn't cook, and I would always find myself wondering how they did it. Would anyone love me if I couldn't cook? I always thought cooking was part of the package: Step right up, it's Rachel Samstat, she's bright, she's funny and she can cook!
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Marriages come and go, but divorce is forever.
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What I love about cooking is that after a hard day, there is something comforting about the fact that if you melt butter and add flour and then hot stock, it will get thick! It's a sure thing! It's a sure thing in a world where nothing is sure; it has a mathematical certainty in a world where those of us who long for some kind of certainty are forced to settle for crossword puzzles.
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