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Rereading Quotes

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Rereading Quotes

“If rewriting equals rereading, we must logically conclude that writing is reading. If this is indeed the case, how could we possibly write under a ban on reading? The only way left is mouth-to-mouth – poets and storytellers recite their pieces and before we can commit them to memory, everything vanishes into thin air.”

WritingReadingLiteratureBooksMemoryWritersLogicalPoetsAuthorsMouthStorytellersGold StandardRecitingRereadingSingapore LiteratureIreadbooksactuallyBooksactuallyBan
Author:Kyoko Yoshida
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“I, too, feel the need to reread the books I have already read," a third reader says, "but at every rereading I seem to be reading a new book, for the first time. Is it I who keep changing and seeing new things of which I was not previously aware? Or is reading a construction that assumes form, assembling a great number of variables, and therefore something that cannot be repeated twice according to the same pattern? Every time I seek to relive the emotion of a previous reading, I experience different and unexpected impressions, and do not find again those of before. At certain moments it seems to me that between one reading and the next there is a progression: in the sense, for example, of penetrating further into the spirit of the text, or of increasing my critical detachment. At other moments, on the contrary, I seem to retain the memory of the readings of a single book one next to another, enthusiastic or cold or hostile, scattered in time without a perspective, without a thread that ties them together. The conclusion I have reached is that reading is an operation without object; or that its true object is itself. The book is an accessory aid, or even a pretext.”

BookReadingBook ReadingRereadingObject Of Reading
Book:If on a winter's night a traveler
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“An unliterary man may be defined as one who reads books once only. . . . We do not enjoy a story fully at the first reading. Not till the curiosity, the sheer narrative lust, has been given its sop and laid asleep, are we at leisure to savour the real beauties. Till then, it is like wasting great wine on a ravenous natural thirst which merely wants cold wetness.”

StoriesReadingSurpriseLiteraryRereadingLewisInklingsRe ReadingUnliterary
Book:On Stories: And Other Essays on Literature
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“When I was a kid, I heard a story about half of all marriages end in divorce. At that time, it was a story about my parents. Twenty years later, I heard the same story — that half of all marriages end in divorce. Then, it was a story about my wife and I. Today, I heard the same story again — that half of all marriages end in divorce. Now, it’s a story about my kids. I heard that same exact story three times — the same exact words — but each time I heard it, it was a completely different story. It changed because I changed.”

ChildrenUnderstandingChangeMarriagePerceptionDivorceStoryRereadingReinterpretation
Book:Heaven and Hurricanes
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“Roth Unbound is filled with intelligent readings and smart judgments. Because of the author's sympathy and sharp mind, it offers real insight into the creative process itself, and into Philip Roth's high calling as a great American artist. The book is, in some ways, a radical rereading of Roth's life and his work. It is impossible, by the end, not to feel a tender admiration for Roth as a novelist and indeed for Claudia Roth Pierpont as an empathetic and brilliant critic.”

WayFeelsMindBookRealEndsArtistReadingProcessCreativeImpossibleCallingOffersJudgmentSmartIntelligentFilledCriticsInsightBrilliantRadicalNovelistsWorking ItAdmirationCreative ProcessGreat AmericanPhilipEmpatheticRereadingUnboundClaudia
Author:Colm Toibin
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“Usually when I put together a book like this Death-Ray hardcover or that Ghost World special edition, then I have to reread it and see if there is anything I want to change or any re-coloring I want to do. That's when I'm faced with the actual work. When I'm working, I'm too close to it. I'm sort of inside, and I can't see it at all. So when I have that experience of rereading it years later, it's jarring.”

IfsWorldWantYearsI CanBookTogetherSpecialGhostRaysRereadingGhost World
Author:Daniel Clowes
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“What a person loves at 20 may seem stupid at 35. That doesn't mean the book was stupid, it means that the time when it spoke to the reader is past. So . . . I'm cautious about rereading favorite books. I hate to spoil the good feelings they created. Keeping the good feelings is more important than rereading the book. Moving on is a good thing.”

MayMeanPersonsImportantBookFeelingsSeemsPastMovingHateStupidReaderI HateGood ThingsSpokesSpoilCautiousGood FeelingFavorite BookRereadingPersons Love
Author:Carl Deuker
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“I visited Paterson many years ago - 20 some years ago as a kind of day trip because of William Carlos Williams, because of Allen Ginsberg having lived there. And I went to the Great Falls and sat really in the exact same spot as Adam Driver does as Paterson. And I walked around the factory buildings, and I was rereading - I was reading at the time the epic length poem "Paterson" by Williams.”

YearsKindDoeFallReadingBuildingYears AgoSpotsSatLengthDriversAdamFactoriesEpicGinsbergRereading
Author:Jim Jarmusch
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“I would love to meet J.K. Rowling and tell her how much I admire her writing and am amazed by her imagination. I read every 'Harry Potter' book as it came out and looked forward to each new one. I am rereading them now with my kids and enjoying them every bit as much. She made me look at jelly beans in a whole new way.”

WayWritingLooksMadeBookWholeKidsBitsEnjoyImaginationAdmireNew WaysHarry PotterAmazedPottersBeansJellyRereadingJelly Bean
Author:Sheryl Sandberg
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“What we require is not a formal return to tradition and religion, but a rereading, a reinterpretation, of our history that can illuminate the present and pave the way to a better future. For example, if we delve more deeply into ancient Egyptian and African civilisations we will discover the humanistic elements that were prevalent in many areas of life. Women enjoyed a high status and rights, which they later lost when class patriarchal society became the prevalent social system.”

IfsWayLostSocialClassRightsExampleReturnElementsAreasTraditionAncientEnjoyedFormalCivilisationEgyptianBetter FutureSocial SystemsHumanisticPatriarchal SocietyRereadingAncient EgyptianReinterpretation
Book:The Nawal El Saadawi Reader
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“When you are in the final days of your life, what will you want? Will you hug that college degree in the walnut frame? Will you ask to be carried to the garage so you can sit in your car? Will you find comfort in rereading your financial statement? Of course not. What will matter then will be people. If relationships will matter most then, shouldn't they matter most now?”

PeopleIfsWantInspirationalMatterCoursesAsksCarCollegeComfortDegreesFinalsFinancialStatementsHugGarageCollege DegreeRereadingWalnutsFinancial Statements
Book:A Love Worth Giving: Living in the Overflow of God's Love
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“So he lent her books. After all, one of life's best pleasures is reading a book of perfect beauty; more pleasurable still is rereading that book; most pleasurable of all is lending it to the person one loves: Now she is reading or has just read the scene with the mirrors; she who is so lovely is drinking in that loveliness I've drunk.”

PersonsStillsBookReadingPerfectPleasureSceneMirrorsDrinkingLovelyDrunkOne LoveLendingLovelinessRereadingPerfect Beauty
Book:Europe Central
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“I’ve been rereading your story. I think it’s about me in a way that might not be flattering, but that’s okay. We dream and dream of being seen as we really are and then finally someone looks at us and sees us truly and we fail to measure up. Anyway: story received, story included. You looked at me long enough to see something mysterioso under all the gruff and bluster. Thanks. Sometimes you get so close to someone you end up on the other side of them.”

ThinkingWayLooksLongEndsSometimesEnoughStoriesDreamMightSidesFailingOkayThanksFlatteringRereadingBluster
Author:Richard Siken
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“Do not put statements in the negative form. And don't start sentences with a conjunction. If you reread your work, you will find on rereading that a great deal of repetition can be avoided by rereading and editing. Never use a long word when a diminutive one will do. Unqualified superlatives are the worst of all. De-accession euphemisms. If any word is improper at the end of a sentence, a linking verb is. Avoid trendy locutions that sound flaky. Last, but not least, avoid cliches like the plague.”

IfsLongEndsUseLastsFormSoundDealsWorstNegativeSentencesStatementsEditingRepetitionPlagueAvoidedClicheVerbsTrendyEuphemismConjunctionsOxymoronUnqualifiedSuperlativesRereadingLong Words
Author:William Safire
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