After I won the Newbery Medal for 'From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler,' children all over the world let me know that they liked books that take them to unusual places where they meet unusual people.
E. L. KonigsburgRead
The essential problems remain the same... The kids I write about are asking for the same things I wanted. They want two contradictory things. They want to be the same as everyone else, and they want to be different from everyone else. They want acceptance for both.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Children desire both individuality and acceptance within a group.
In this quote, E. L. Konigsburg captures the universal struggle faced by children—balancing the innate desire to fit in with their peers while simultaneously wanting to stand out and express their uniqueness. This duality reflects a fundamental aspect of human nature, where the need for belonging conflicts with the desire for personal identity and expression.
Themes
AcceptanceIndividualityBelongingChildrenIdentity
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about youth development, I might say, 'As E. L. Konigsburg insightfully notes, children seek both acceptance and individuality.'
More from E. L. Konigsburg
All quotes →I'm not sure that love and like aren't like cats and dogs: One can't grow up to be the other, but they can be taught to live under the same roof.
E. L. KonigsburgRead
I think most of us are outsiders. And I think that's good because it makes you question things.
E. L. KonigsburgRead
Art comes from a visceral need and is usually generated by something I have seen; writing comes from something that happens in my head and my heart.
E. L. KonigsburgRead
Every now and then, a person must do something simply because he wants to, because it seems to him worth doing. And that does not make it worthless or a waste of time.
E. L. KonigsburgRead
Finish. The difference between being a writer and being a person of talent is the discipline it takes to apply the seat of your pants to the seat of your chair and finish. Don't talk about doing it. Do it. Finish.
E. L. KonigsburgRead
Similar quotes
For both of us, I think, it had to do with our weakened power to love. It is strange that enslavement should have that effect – not just the fantastic degradation, not just the fear and the boredom and all the rest, but also the layered injustice, the silent injustice. So all right. We’re back where we started. To you, nothing – from you, everything. They took it from me, it seems, for no reason, other than that I value it so much.
Martin AmisRead
I've always kinda been a little outcast myself, a little oddball, doin' my thing, my own way. And it's been hard for me to, to be accepted, certainly in the early years of my life.
Dolly PartonRead
Whenever I meet people for the first time, I get them to talk for ten minutes. Then I size them up from the exact opposite perspective of all they’ve told me. Do you think that’s crazy? “No,” I said, shaking my head, “I’d guess your method works quite well.
Haruki MurakamiRead
We do know that no one gets wise enough to really understand the heart of another, though it is the task of our life to try.
Louise ErdrichRead
We are all very anxious to be understood, and it is very hard not to be. But there is one thing much more necessary.' What is that, grandmother?' To understand other people.' Yes, grandmother. I must be fair - for if I'm not fair to other people, I'm not worth being understood myself. I see.
George MacdonaldRead
We don't want to promote any system that treats the fact that an individual is LGBT as a personality disorder. And anything that perpetuates that perception is harmful - not only to that member of the community but the entire community.
Kamala HarrisRead