"Every story is part of a whole, entire life, you know? Happy and sad and tragic and whatever, but an entire life. And books let you know them." --- Sara Ockler, Twenty Boy Summer I planned to post a video today of my system to track my summer reading. However, when I got up at… Continue reading Words that are Speaking to Me

Whenever I begin reading a new book, I am embarking on a new, uncharted journey with an unmarked destination. I never know where a particular book will take me, toward what other books I will be led. --- Nancy Pearl

"Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart." --William Wordsworth

For hours, she wrote, attempting each night to complete ten pages of her life. There was so much to consider, so many things in danger of being left out. Just be patient, she told herself, and with the mounting pages, the strength of her writing grew. --- Markus Zusak, The Book Thief, p. 527

It's over now. I'm at the end of the summer following my senior year; I have my diploma in a lockbox and the advantage of hindsight. But I want to tell it [the story] without that advantage -- tell it as it unfolded -- Mr. Simet says any story is only true in the moment.… Continue reading Words that are Speaking to Me

Writing a first draft is very much like watching a Polaroid develop. You can't -- and, in fact, you're not supposed to -- know exactly what the picture is going to look like until it has finished developing. --- Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

"This is a story about darkness and light, about sorrow and joy, about something lost and something found. This is a story about Love." ---Walt Disney's Cinderella Retold by Cynthia Rylant

Words tickle him like fingertips in the ribs. --- Jerry Spinelli, Loser

"Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark, in the hopeless swamps of the approximate, the not-quite, the not-yet, the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish, in lonely frustration for the life you deserved, but have never been able to reach. Check your road and the nature of… Continue reading Words That Are Speaking to Me

As you head back to school (work) tomorrow, consider these quotations: We spend January 1 walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched.  Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives... not looking for… Continue reading Inspiring Words for the Second Half of the School Year