Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Marissa Meyer

Quote by Marissa Meyer

Work

Cress

Browse quotes and source details for this work. more

Author

Marissa Meyer
Marissa Meyer

Marissa Meyer is an American novelist known for her science fiction works. Her novels blend classical literature with modern science fiction elements, enjoying great popularity among readers. more

You May Also Like

“The big willow clogging the channel was evidence of the damage men could do, but maybe they would be different if they were allowed on the island. Maybe they would learn to be a little more like women. They wouldn't have to start fires here the way they did at Boneset; they wouldn't have to burn the rotting wood where hen-of-the-woods mushrooms grew. Donkey would have to tell them about all the special care the island needed. Every crevice and swollen place needed a certain treatment--- different in spring than in summer or fall. There were nesting sites to watch out for, broken places in a tree's bark that could be sealed with goop to help the tree survive. The women who had lived on the island all this time moved carefully, tenderly, because there was so much to lose.”

Women And MenTlcLearn From Others
Book:The Waters
Create image

“There can be no easy reconciliations, only complicated truths, told without shame. The murderers among us would have us believe that history is slippery and unknowable. Insisting otherwise is an act of defense... But the past never goes away. The fear and pain are still there, buried in our brains like mines. It is better to defuse them than to leave them entombed, quietly, waiting for a single misstep. That is why I am telling my story.”

HistoryTraumaRefugeeCambodian Vietnamese War
Book:Slow Noodles: A Cambodian Memoir of Love, Loss, and Family Recipes
Create image

“Well,' said Can o' Beans, a bit hesitantly,' imprecise speech is one of the major causes of mental illness in human beings.' Huh?' Quite so. The inability to correctly perceive reality is often responsible for humans' insane behavior. And every time they substitute an all-purpose, sloppy slang word for the words that would accurately describe an emotion or a situation, it lowers their reality orientations, pushes them farther from shore, out onto the foggy waters of alienation and confusion.' The manner in which the other were regarding him/her made Can O' Beans feel compelled to continue. 'The word neat, for example, has precise connotations. Neat means tidy, orderly, well-groomed. It's a valuable tool for describing the appearance of a room, a hairdo, or a manuscript. When it's generically and inappropriately applied, though, as it is in the slang aspect, it only obscures the true nature of the thing or feeling that it's supposed to be representing. It's turned into a sponge word. You can wring meanings out of it by the bucketful--and never know which one is right. When a person says a movie is 'neat,' does he mean that it's funny or tragic or thrilling or romantic, does he mean that the cinematography is beautiful, the acting heartfelt, the script intelligent, the direction deft, or the leading lady has cleavage to die for? Slang possesses an economy, an immediacy that's attractive, all right, but it devalues experience by standardizing and fuzzing it. It hangs between humanity and the real world like a . . . a veil. Slang just makes people more stupid, that's all, and stupidity eventually makes them crazy. I'd hate to ever see that kind of craziness rub off onto objects.”

HumansLanguageMental IllnessSlangWord Choice
Book:Skinny Legs and All
Create image