“When I was eight years old, I wrote a paragraph-long short story about a goat on my mother's hundred-pound, black-and-white-screen laptop. The story came about largely because I liked the way the word 'goat' looked on the page, but I decided then and there that I wanted to be a writer. That desire never changed.” WayYearsLongStoriesWantedMotherDesireBlackWhiteChangedPagesHundredDecidedEightScreensPoundsShort StoryBlack And WhiteNever ChangeGoatsParagraphLaptops Author:Tea Obreht
“I always sent my mother all these huge books I made. When my mother died, I was cleaning her cupboard, and these big books were only 20 pages long. She edited out, maybe burned, every single photograph where I'm naked.” LongMadeBookBigsMotherHugePagesDiedPhotographNakedBurnedCleaningEditedCupboardsMother DiedBig Book Author:Marina Abramovic
“I've always loved books. My mother told me that before I could talk, I'd babble in my crib as I turned the pages of my little cloth books, apparently telling stories to go along with the pictures.” LittlesBookStoriesMotherPagesTelling Stories Author:JoAnn Ross
“While some mothers sing lullabies to their children, my mother read me poetry. And to this day, I associate my strongest and most insistent feelings with words lyrically organized on a page.” ChildrenFeelingsMotherPagesOrganizedThis DayStrongestAssociatesLullaby Author:Masiela Lusha
“I am obsessed by the idea of silence. I went through an entire library studying art, artists and their critics, philosophers, too, on the meaning and significance of the color white. I dreamed of white birds and white bears. I thought about the white pages of my mother's journals. I became enthralled with John Cage and his work, 4'33”, his masterpiece of ambient sound. Rauschenberg, too. And then at some point I let go. What sticks to the soul is what gets placed on the page. Maybe that's the unknown part, the mystery, the power of the empty page.” ArtIdeasSoulMotherArtistSoundWhiteSilenceStudyMysteryColorBearsLetting GoPagesBirdEmptySticksCriticsLibraryPhilosopherObsessedSignificanceJournalCagesMasterpieceAmbientColor WhiteStudying ArtWhite Birds Author:Terry Tempest Williams
“The degree to which the child-rearing professionals continue to be out of touch with reality is astounding. For example, a widely read manual on breast-feeding, devotes fewer than two pages to the working mother.” ChildrenTwoRealityMotherExampleDegreesPagesBreastsFewerFeedingManualsChild Rearing Author:Sylvia Ann Hewlett
“I play classical music almost exclusively. I never mastered jazz or gospel in the way that my mother did. She was a fine improvisational musician. I pretty much have to stick to what's written on the page.” WayPlayMotherWrittenFineMusicianPagesSticksJazzClassical Music Author:Condoleezza Rice
“You can just start writing, but you're gonna go off on 10 or 12 starts and weird tangents, and yeah you'll have those pages to use later - to gift wrap some fish for your mother - but either way you're gonna have pages.” WayWritingUseMotherPagesYeahFishesWraps Author:Shane Black
“I hate it when people tell me the end of the story because my mother always read the last page of a novel first to see whether she wanted to read it. It was a strange reading habit.” PeopleFirstsEndsStoriesWantedLastsMotherHateReadingNovelStrangeHabitPagesI HateReading Habits Author:Alice Hoffman
“I have known I wanted to be a writer since I was seven-years-old. Seriously. In the second grade I wrote a 21-page story and handed it in to my teacher. She told my mother I was going to be a writer. Since then, I always kept a journal and wrote poetry, plays, stories.” YearsPlayStoriesWantedMotherKnownTeacherPagesSevenGradesJournalSeven Years Author:Renee Watson
“Mother, I am young. Mother, I am just eighteen. I am strong. I will work hard, Mother. But I do not want this child to grow up just to work hard. What must I do, mother, what must I do to make a different world for her? How do I start?" "The secret lies in the reading and the writing. You are able to read. Every day you must read one page from some good book to your child. Every day this must be until the child learns to read. Then she must read every day, I know this is the secret” KnowsWorldWantWritingChildrenBookDifferentHardAbleYoungLyingMotherReadingStrongGrowsSecretGrowing UpHard WorkPagesYour ChildrenGood BookEighteenDifferent WorldsI Am StrongYoung Mother Book:A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Source: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
“Motherhood is the greatest potential influence either for good or ill in human life. The mother's image is the first that stamps itself on the unwritten page of the young child's mind. It is her caress that first awakens a sense of security; her kiss, the first realization of affection; her sympathy and tenderness, the first assurance that there is love in the world.” WorldMindFirstsHumansChildrenYoungMotherInfluenceSecurityKissingPagesIllAffectionMotherhoodRealizationHuman LifeTendernessStampsAssuranceYoung ChildrenCaressUnwritten Author:David O. McKay
“The other day I found her passport in her drawer when I was putting away my dad's laundered handkerchiefs. I wish I hadn't. For the purpose of my story, she should have it with her. I sat on my dad's bed and flipped through page after empty page. No stamps. No exotic locales. No travel-worn smudges or creases. Just the ID information and my mother's black-and-white photo which if it were used in a psychology textbook on the meaning of facial expressions would be labelled: Obscenely, heartbreakingly hopeful.” IfsShouldStoriesWould BeUsedMotherPurposeFoundWishBlackWhitePsychologyInformationExpressionDadBedPagesEmptyShould HaveMy DadSatHopefulBlack And WhiteWornStampsExoticTextbooksDrawersPassportsFacialFlippedHandkerchiefsFacial Expression Book:A Complicated Kindness: A Novel Source: A Complicated Kindness: A Novel
“I didn't relate well to people my age. Maybe the truth was that I didn't relate well to people, period. Even my mother, who I was closer to than anyone else on the planet, was never in harmony with me, never on exactly the same page. Sometimes I wondered if I was seeing the same things through my eyes that the rest of the world was seeing through theirs. Maybe there was a glitch in my brain.” PeopleIfsWorldWellsSometimesEyeAgeMotherBrainSeeingPlanetsPeriodsPagesHarmonyRelateThrough My EyesGlitches Author:Stephenie Meyer
“Your mother all but accused me of something that is, among my kind, the highest crime a man can commit. There is no trial, only punishment, because it is considered better to let an innocent man die than let a guilty one live." (Page 79.)” MenKindMotherDiesCrimeHighestPagesPunishmentTrialsCommitInnocentGuiltyAccusedInnocent Man Book:Hawksong Source: Hawksong
“Time passes, as the novelist says. The single most useful trick of fiction for our repair and refreshment: the defeat of time. A century of family saga and a ride up an escalator can take the same number of pages. Fiction sets any conversion rate, then changes it in a syllable. The narrator’s mother carries her child up the stairs and the reader follows, for days. But World War I passes in a paragraph. I needed 125 pages to get from Labor Day to Christmas vacation. In six more words, here’s spring.” WorldChildrenWarMotherNumbersFictionCenturyReaderNeededSixPagesSpringLaborRateDefeatConversionTricksNovelistsWar Of The WorldsCarrieVacationWorld War IStairsParagraphSyllablesTime PassesSagaNarratorsLabor DayRefreshmentsEscalators Book:Generosity: An Enhancement Source: Generosity: An Enhancement