words that bring a smile, elicit a laugh, return a long lost memory, serve as an inspiration, or simply make you go WOW. Here is my collection of favourite words from the writers cited within this blog.
"Food is... life. It's who we are. People say 'You are what you eat' all the time, but that's not really how the saying goes. It's not so simple as 'If you eat bacon, you're a pig.' The actual quote is 'Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are.' Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, a French guy who wrote about taste and gastronomy in the nineteenth century, said it. And he meant that food is like this big clue - how we eat reveals a lot about how we feel about our world."
-- Louisa Edwards, Can't Stand the Heat, p 131.
"Hands cradle newborns, build cities, plant vegetables, caress loved ones, teach our eyes the shape of things - how round swells, how sand grits - bridge lonely hearts, connect us to the world, map the difference between self and other, fasten onto beauty, pledge loyalty, cajole food from grain, and so much more."
-- Diane Ackerman, The Zookeepers Wife, p. 177-178.
-- Diane Ackerman, The Zookeepers Wife, p. 177-178.
"History is not just about the analysis of evidence, unrolling vellum documents or answering exam papers. It is not about judging the dead. It is about understanding the meaning of the past - to realize the whole evolving human story over centuries, not just our own lifetimes."
-- Ian Mortimer, The Time Traveler's guide to Medieval England: A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century, p. 292.
"The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again: but already it was impossible to say which was which."
-- George Orwell, Animal Farm, p 93.
"Everything we do is affected to a certain degree by social norms and what pop culture demands of us. I think it's fine to go along with these things to a certain extent, so long as you're always cognizant of why you're doing it. For example, I wear makeup. I love it. But I recognize that the reason I love it sooo much is that the larger world tells me I need it to be pretty. Would it be revolutionary of me to throw all my makeup away? Yup. But I don't want to. I wear it, but I'm aware of why I do."
-- Jessica Valenti, Full Frontal Feminism: A Young Woman's Guide to Why Feminism Matters, p 57.
"Memories aren't stored in the heart or the head or even the soul, if you ask me, but in the spaces between any given two people."
-- Jodi Picoult, Vanishing Acts, p 225.
