The Power of Words

I have already written of my love for books, but if I break it down, it is really the words I love. How they sculpt a picture in my head. How they enable me to be part of the constructing. They give me the map but let my mind do the work - imagining, building, painting until I have a vivid picture of the characters, scene, actions the author is describing. I love that.

Words are powerful. With a phrase someone can irreparably change you - wield an insult that alters how you forever view yourself, offer words of kindness to guide you through a tragedy, profess a love you never thought you could attain.

As I read, I am often astounded how authors lace words together in ways I would never imagine.

I began a blog several years ago as a way to categorize some of the beautiful phrases I come across while reading. I used the quotes I extracted as examples for my students. The page has been neglected for some time, but I am hoping to resurrect it here.

If you read this blog via a news reader (aggregator) then you probably have not noticed that I change the quote at the top of the page with each blog update. The quotes come from the aforementioned blog (which I plan to start updating again.) 

I think of it a small "tribute" to words and to the authors who employ them so magically.

In case you have missed the previous phrases used in my header, I plan to share them in a post at the end of each month.

I hope you enjoy July's "tribute."

• “I am like a caterpillar in a cocoon of paper; all around me are sketches of sculptures, small drawings that seem like moths fluttering against the windows, beating their wings to escape from this tiny space. “ - from The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

• "My heart applauds inside my ears, first like a roaring crowd, then slows and slows till it’s a solitary person, clapping with unbridled sarcasm.” - from I Am The Messenger by Markus Zusak 

• “I feel like cotton candy: sugar and air. Squeeze me and I’d turn into a small sickly damp wad of weeping pinky-red.” - from The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood