we are, in this country, more open to new ideas. But we are also, it seems to me, more inclined to hail the new as absolute truth - until the next new comes along. Paula Fox More Quotes by Paula Fox More Quotes From Paula Fox When you read to a child, when you put a book in a child's hands, you are bringing that child news of the infinitely varied nature of life. You are an awakener. Paula Fox reading book children Families hold each other in an iron grip of definition. One must break the grip, somehow. Paula Fox iron definitions break The minute you become conscious that you are doing good, that's the minute you have to stop because from then on it's wrong. Paula Fox doing-good minutes conscious A good novel begins with a small question and ends with a bigger one. Paula Fox bigger novel ends People steal into one's consciousness and occupy what seems, in retrospect, to have been their place all along. Paula Fox retrospect consciousness people I was the goldfish that leapt out of the bowl. Paula Fox goldfish bowls self-esteem Life is all getting used to what you're not used to. Paula Fox used life-is Freedom is a public library. Paula Fox public-library library Teachers inspire the smallest hearts to grow big enough to change the world. Paula Fox heart teacher inspire A lie hides the truth. A story tries to find it. Paula Fox stories trying lying I taught writing classes at the University of Pennsylvania for a number of years and I realized that all you can do is encourage people and give them assignments and hope they will write them. Paula Fox writing class years A year and a half after the end of the war and the German occupation, Paris was muted and looked bruised and forlorn. Everywhere I went, I sensed the tracks of the wolf that had tried to devour the city. But Paris proved inedible, as it had been ever since its tribal beginnings on an island in the Seine, the Ile de la Cité. Paula Fox paris cities war Labels not only free us from the obligation to think creatively; they numb our sensibilities, our power to feel. During the Vietnam War, the phrase body count entered our vocabulary. It is an ambiguous phrase, inorganic, even faintly sporty. It distanced us from the painful reality of corpses, of dead, mutilated people. Paula Fox war reality thinking The language of labels is like paper money, issued irresponsibly, with nothing of intrinsic value behind it, that is, with no effort of the intelligence to see, to really apprehend. Paula Fox effort labels paper To be human is to be in a story. Paula Fox humans stories The density of people in society is so thick that we forget that life will end one day. And we don't know when that one-day will be. So please, tell the people you love and care for that they are special and important. Tell them, before it is too late. Paula Fox important special people It was hard to reassure grown-ups when you weren't certain yourself what you were feeling and thinking—when thoughts dissolved before you could name them. Paula Fox names feelings thinking Life was an impenetrable mystery cloaked in babble. Paula Fox mystery When there's a terrible murder people who are interviewed say, 'This has always been a quiet neighborhood.' That is so dumb and uninformed! The earth is not a quiet neighborhood. There isn't anyplace that's a quiet neighborhood. People are asking themselves how to stay neat in the cyclone. Paula Fox dumb earth people My life was incoherent to me. I felt it quivering, spitting out broken teeth. Paula Fox teeth felt broken
