#sent

The more I write stories for young people, and the more young readers I meet, the more I'm struck by how much kids long to see themselves in stories. To see their identities and perspectives—their avatars—on the page. Not as issues to be addressed or as icons for social commentary, but simply as people who get to do cool things in amazing worlds. Yes, all the “issue” books are great and have a place in literature, but it's a different and wildly joyous gift to find yourself on the pages of an entertainment, experiencing the thrills and chills of a world more adventurous than our own. And when you see that as a writer, you quickly realize that you don't want to be the jerk who says to a young reader, “Sorry, kid. You don't get to exist in story; you're too different.” You don't want to be part of our present dystopia that tells kids that if they just stopped being who they are they could have a story written about them, too. That's the role of the bad guy in the dystopian stories, right? Given a choice, I'd rather be the storyteller who says every kid can have a chance to star. - posted at Kirkus Review in post "Straight-Laced Dystopias ↗

— Paolo Bacigalupi

#lgbtq #minorities #representation #teens #writing

Living is about capturing the essence of things. I go through my life every day with a vial, a vial wherein can be found precious essential oils of every kind! The priceless, fragrant oils that are the essence of my experiences, my thoughts. I walk inside a different realm from everybody else, in that I am existing in the essence of things; every time there is reason to smile, I hold out my glass vial and capture that drop of oil, that essence, and then I smile. And that is why I have smiled, and so you and I may be smiling at the same time but I am smiling because of that one drop of cherished, treasured oil that I have extracted. When I write, I find no need to memorize an idea, a plot, a sequence of things: no. I must only capture the essence of a feeling or a thought and once I have inhaled that aroma, I know that I have what I need. ↗

— C. JoyBell C.

#essence-of-things #essential-oils #experiences #fragrance #inspirational-life

I always thought I could do a good job coaching, but the opportunities have not presented themselves. ↗

— Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

#coaching #could #good #good job #i

There was never sufficient evidence presented at my trial to support a finding of intent to kill. ↗

— Jack Henry Abbott

#finding #intent #kill #never #presented

The last four or five hundred years of European contact with Africa produced a body of literature that presented Africa in a very bad light and Africans in very lurid terms. The reason for this had to do with the need to justify the slave trade and slavery. ↗

— Chinua Achebe

#bad #body #contact #european #five

If we learn the art of yielding what must be yielded to the changing present, we can save the best of the past. ↗

— Dean Acheson

#best #changing #learn #must #past

I like to be able to present myself in two or three different ways because I've never really wanted to rest on my laurels and be something that people expected. ↗

— Bryan Adams

#because #different #different ways #expected #i

The Hebrews have done more to civilize men than any other nation. If I were an atheist, and believed blind eternal fate, I should still believe that fate had ordained the Jews to be the most essential instrument for civilizing the nations. ↗

— John Adams

#atheist #believe #believed #blind #civilize

Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for. ↗

— Joseph Addison

#essentials #grand #happiness #life #love

Books are the legacies that a great genius leaves to mankind, which are delivered down from generation to generation as presents to the posterity of those who are yet unborn. ↗

— Joseph Addison

#delivered #down #generation #genius #great