Religious freedom should work two ways: we should be free to practice the religion of our choice, but we must also be free from having someone else's religion practiced on us. -John Irving, novelist (b. 1942)

From today's Wordsmith.

Every man's work, whether it be literature, or music or pictures or architecture or anything else, is always a portrait of himself. -Samuel Butler, poet (1612-1680)

True teachers are those who use themselves as bridges over which they invite their students to cross; then, having facilitated their crossing, joyfully collapse, encouraging them to create their own. -Nikos Kazantzakis, poet and novelist (1883-1957)

Reading a book is like rewriting it for yourself. You bring to a novel, anything you read, all your experience of the world. You bring your history and you read it in your own terms. -Angela Carter, novelist and journalist (1940-1992)I bought and finished Anita Diamant's latest book "Day After Night". Recommended. She writes well about women who ( Read more... )

We should be careful to get out of an experience only the wisdom that is in it -- and stop there -- lest we be like the cat that sits down on a hot stove-lid. She will never sit down on a hot stove-lid again, and that is well; but also she will never sit down on a cold one any more. -Mark Twain, author and humorist (1835-1910)

Oddly appropriate