Words can fall hard like a boulder loosed from a cliff. Words can drift unnoticed like a weed seed on a breeze. Words can sing.
Interpretation
Words can have powerful effects, either positive or negative, depending on how they are used.
This quote highlights the diverse impact that words can have in our lives. Just like a boulder can cause destruction when it falls, words can hurt or damage relationships; conversely, words can also be gentle and uplifting, bringing joy and beauty akin to a song. The metaphor of words drifting like a seed suggests that some messages may go unnoticed yet still have the potential to grow and thrive in someone’s mind or heart.
In practice
In a speech about mental health, one might use this quote to illustrate the importance of kind words.
I’ve always believed that as an author, I do 50% of the work of storytelling, and the reader does the other 50%. There’s no way I can control the story you tell yourself from my book. Your own experiences, preferences, prejudices, mood at the moment, current events in your life, needs and wants influence how you read my every word.
The rewrites are a struggle right now. Sometimes I wish writing a book could just be easy for me at last. But when I think about it practically, I am glad it's a struggle. I am (as usual) attempting to write a book that's too hard for me. I'm telling a story I'm not smart enough to tell. The risk of failure is huge. But I prefer it this way. I'm forced to learn, forced to smarten myself up, forced to wrestle. And if it works, then I'll have written something that is better than I am.
If you want to get an idea across, wrap it up in a person.
There is more than a verbal tie between the words common, community, and communication.... Try the experiment of communicating, with fullness and accuracy, some experience to another, especially if it be somewhat complicated, and you will find your own attitude toward your experience changing.
In communications, familiarity breeds apathy.
To effectively communicate, we must realize that we are all different in the way we perceive the world and use this understanding as a guide to our communication with others.
Letters have to pass two tests before they can be classed as good: they must express the personality both of the writer and of the recipient.
Language just gradually came in, one or two stressed words a time. Before then, I would just scream. I couldn't talk. I couldn't get my words out. So the only way I could tell someone what I wanted was to scream. If I didn't want to wear a hat, the only way I knew to communicate was screaming and throwing it on the floor.
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