It really felt like my generation was deprived of a future that we believed was ours. I don't mean some hugely privileged future where we all have gigantic houses. I mean having a job.
Sally RooneyRead
I gave myself the small task of writing honestly about the kind of life I knew. I believe there is some value in carrying out that task, however limited.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of honesty in personal expression and the intrinsic value of sharing one's experiences.
In this quote, Sally Rooney reflects on her commitment to truthfully document her experiences as a form of self-exploration and expression. She suggests that even small, honest tasks can carry significant value, indicating that sharing one’s unique perspective contributes to a broader understanding of life, regardless of its perceived limitations.
In practice
A writer might use this quote to inspire fellow authors at a literary workshop.
It really felt like my generation was deprived of a future that we believed was ours. I don't mean some hugely privileged future where we all have gigantic houses. I mean having a job.
I find myself consistently drawn to writing about intimacy and the way we construct one another.
When I read interviews with people like Kevin Barry or Colin Barrett, who I hugely admire, they don't really seem to come up against the question of likeability even though their characters, in some instances, are really horrible.
Class is something that I think seriously about and try to organise my politics around. I think there are lots of novels that don't really engage with questions of class at all, and they get less conversation about issues of social privilege than I do. But it's better to try and talk about it and maybe fail.
Our lives are songs; God write the words And we set them to music at pleasure; And the song grows glad, or sweet or sad, As we choose to fashion the measure.
I reassured my mother that it didn’t matter to me if my face was not symmetrical. Me, who had always cared about my appearance, how my hair looked! But when you see death, things change. “It doesn’t matter if I can’t smile or blink properly,” I told her. “I’m still me, Malala. The important thing is God has given me my life.
I'm in a place in my life where I get offered parts that I didn't get offered before - fathers and uncles and grandfathers and so on. And it took me a long time to get to that place, but I'm glad because it opens up new territory.
Life is a thing to be lived, not spent; to be faced, not ordered. Life is not a game of chess, the victory to the most knowing; it is a game of cards, one's hand by skill to be made the best of.
If I should die tomorrow, I will have no regrets. I did what I wanted to do. You can't expect more from life.
It has been said that sometimes we need a story more than food in order to live. p 374
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