Most children tell themselves stories in which they figure as powerful figures, enjoying the pleasures not only of the adult world as they conceive it but of a world of wonders unlike dull reality.
Interpretation
Children create imaginative worlds where they feel empowered and experience joy beyond reality.
Gore Vidal's quote highlights the extraordinary capacity of children to construct narratives in which they assume roles of power and enjoyment. These stories serve as a form of escapism, allowing them to explore a realm filled with wonders and excitement that starkly contrasts with the often mundane or constrained nature of adult life. This imaginative play is crucial for their development, inspiring creativity and an appreciation for the fantastical aspects of existence.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of creativity in education, one might quote this to emphasize the value of imaginative play.
We must declare ourselves, become known; allow the world to discover this subterranean life of ours which connects kings and farm boys, artists and clerks. Let them see that the important thing is not the object of love, but the emotion itself.
American writers want to be not good but great; and so are neither.
Writing fiction has become a priestly business in countries that have lost their faith.
The important thing is not the object of love, but the emotion itself.
For the average American, freedom of speech is simply the freedom to repeat what everyone else is saying and no more.
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The worse a person is the less he feels it.
If we are concerned about the exploitation of human workers in countries with low standards of worker protection, we should also be concerned about the treatment of even more defenceless non-human animals.
"Do you know," Ivan Bunin recalls Anton Chekhov saying to him in 1899, near the end of his too-short life, "for how many years I shall be read? Seven." "Why seven?" Bunin asked. "Well," Chekhov answered, "seven and a half then."
There is no single face in nature, because every eye that looks upon it, sees it from its own angle. So every man's spice-box seasons his own food.
You may fetter my leg, but Zeus himself cannot get the better of my free will.
Wars and revolutions and battles are due simply and solely to the body and its desires.
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