“Sometimes a person needs help because she needs it, not because her story is compelling or noble or strange enough to earn it, and sometimes you just do what you can. It doesn't make you any better, or any worse. It doesn't change you at all, except for the split second when you imagine that day when you will be the one who has to ask.” PeopleHuman NatureHelp Book:Make It Scream, Make It Burn Source: Make It Scream, Make It Burn
“I needed people to deliver my feelings back to me in a form that was legible. Which is a superlative kind of empathy to seek, or to supply: an empathy that rearticulates more clearly what it's shown.” PeopleKindFeelingsFormNeededEmpathySuperlatives Book:The Empathy Exams: Essays Source: The Empathy Exams: Essays
“When people ask what kind of nonfiction I write, I say 'all kinds,' but really I mean I don’t write any kind at all: I’m trying to dissolve the borders between memoir and journalism and criticism by weaving them together.” PeopleWritingTryingKindMeanTogetherAsksCriticismMemoirAll KindsJournalismBordersNonfictionWeaving Author:Leslie Jamison
“When bad things happened to other people, I imagined them happening to me. I didn’t know if this was empathy or theft.” PeopleIfsKnowsHappenedEmpathyHappeningsThings HappenBad ThingsTheftBad Things Happen Book:The Empathy Exams: Essays Source: The Empathy Exams: Essays
“The publishing industry, unsurprisingly, is full of different people who love different things and express that love in different languages. Find the people, the editors and agents, with whom you share some language, and some sense of what makes literature worth reading.” PeopleDifferentReadingLiteratureLanguageShareIndustryAgentsDifferent ThingsEditorsPublishingDifferent PeoplesWorth ReadingDifferent LanguagesPublishing Industry Author:Leslie Jamison
