Reading was like a drug, a dope. The novels created moods in which I lived for days.
Richard WrightRead
It had been only through books-at best, no more than vicarious cultural transfusions-that I had managaed to keep myself alive in a negatively vital way. Whenever my environment had failed to support or nourish me, I had clutched at books.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Books can provide sustenance for the mind and spirit when one's environment is lacking.
In this quote, Richard Wright reflects on the profound impact that reading has had on his life, particularly in challenging times. He suggests that books serve as a lifeline, offering knowledge, culture, and understanding in moments when his surroundings have failed to provide nourishment and support. This underscores the importance of literature in personal growth and survival.
Themes
BooksCultureKnowledgeSurvivalReading
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the importance of literature in personal development.
More from Richard Wright
All quotes →I was not leaving the south to forget the south, but so that some day I might understand it
Richard WrightRead
Hunger has always been more or less at my elbow when I played, but now I began to wake up at night to find hunger standing at my bedside, staring at my gauntly.
Richard WrightRead
He had lived and acted on the assumption that he was alone, and now he saw that he had not been. What he had done made others suffer. No matter how much he would long for them to forget him, they would not be able to. His family was a part of him, not only in blood, but in spirit.
Richard WrightRead
It made me love talk that sought answers to questions that could help nobody, that could only keep alive in me that enthralling sense of wonder and awe in the face of the drama of human feeling which is hidden by the external drama of life.
Richard WrightRead
I listened, vaguely knowing now that I had committed some awful wrong that I could not undo, that I had uttered words I could not recall even though I ached to nullify them, kill them, turn back time to the moment before I had talked so that I could have another chance to save myself.
Richard WrightRead
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