Don't worry about how pretty (the story) sounds, how lilting it is, and the imagery, and the metaphor, all that. Most readers don't care. It's the people in your book that matter.
Terry McmillanRead
Let me put it this way: when I read, I learned the world was not as small as my house. And that everybody in my home town was not representative of the way people in the world were raised. And that was what saved me.
Interpretation
This quote highlights how reading expands one's understanding of the world beyond their immediate surroundings.
Terry McMillan emphasizes the transformative power of reading in her quote, illustrating how literature allowed her to perceive the vast diversity of life experiences beyond her hometown. By revealing the broader spectrum of human existence, reading provided her with a sense of salvation, suggesting that increased awareness and understanding can lead to personal growth and liberation from narrow perspectives.
In practice
During a literacy event to inspire children, I could use this quote to show them how books can open up their understanding of the world.
Don't worry about how pretty (the story) sounds, how lilting it is, and the imagery, and the metaphor, all that. Most readers don't care. It's the people in your book that matter.
There is no substitute for practical experience, and if you want to write about people you ought to put down that comic book and go out and meet some of them rather than studying the way that Stan Lee or Chris Claremont depict people.
Except when he has regressive tendencies, the child's nature is to aim directly and energetically at functional independence.
Most of us who turn to any subject we love remember some morning or evening hour when we got on a high stool to reach down an untried volume, or sat with parted lips listening to a new talker, or for very lack of books began to listen to the voices within, as the first traceable beginning of our love.
TV serves us most usefully when presenting junk-entertainment; it serves us most ill when it co-opts serious modes of discourse - news, politics, science, education, commerce, religion.
Middle-income countries need to attend to the education of their poorest people to build their economies and ensure long-term stability.
Education used to be a slice of life, something you did as a child through college, and then spent the rest of your life working, and then death. Everything is about to change. I believe education will become something that fits seamlessly into life, and we will take big clunky things like degrees and college and fit them into a weekend.
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