The failure of modern living is the failure of the imagination...Literature is the royal road that enables us to enter the realm of the imagination.
Julius LesterFreeform radio is an art form. The airwaves are the empty canvas, the producer is the artist, and the sound is the paint.
Julius LesterOften, the human animal dresses terror in rage, and expresses both in a way unlike either.
Julius LesterBeing a failure at living your own life as best as you can is better than being a success living the life somebody else says you should live.
Julius LesterDying ain't important. Everyone does that. What's important is how well you do your living.
Julius LesterIf I canot know your name, may I light a lamp so I can see your face?' If you sould ever see my face, you will lose me forever.' Why?' Psyche wanted to know. 'Are you ugly? Are you afraid I won't love you if I see your face?' Perhaps I am afraid that if you see my face, it will be THAT that you will love and not me.' I understand, believe me. I know what that feels like.
Julius LesterWhen I read students’ attempts at creative writing it is obvious immediately that most of them have not read much or widely. The aspiring writer must read everything he or she can to appreciate the myriad ways words are used and to what effect.
Julius LesterFaith is not something that one has; faith is something that one practices at the very moment in your life when you really don't believe anything, and you're in the worst kind of despair.
Julius LesterSilence was not the absence of sound but was itself a sound that could be loud or soft, soothing or disturbing, complex or simple.
Julius Lester... the object of learning was not to build a better mousetrap but to ask a better question.
Julius LesterGoodness was not a trait you acquired; it was a value you practiced when you were on the verge of doing evil.
Julius LesterBut there are times when a tree can no longer withstand the pain inflicted on it, and the wind will take pity on that tree and topple it over in a mighty storm. All the other trees who witnessed the evil look down upon the fallen tree with envy. They pray for the day when a wind will end their suffering. I pray for the day when God will end mine.
Julius LesterA good teacher is one who helps you become who you feel yourself to be. A good teacher is also one who says something that you won't understand until 10 years later.
Julius LesterI write because the lives of all of us are stories. If enough of those stories are told, then perhaps we will begin to see that our lives are the same story. The differences are merely in the details.
Julius LesterTo write and not tell the truth? That would be death for any writer. But more, it would be death to the imagination. And if the imagination dies, what would happen to the souls of children?
Julius Lester...part of the mind's job was to cast doubt on what the heart knew to be true, and the heart, because it had no words, often lost the argument
Julius LesterThe young accept the extraordinary as normal because they do not compare their lives with those of others when everyone is like them.
Julius LesterSome wounds go so deep that you don't even feel them until months, maybe years, later.
Julius LesterJust because she's dead it doesn't mean I stopped loving her or that she stopped loving me. It's just her body that left. The love didn't. —Jenna Richards
Julius LesterIt ain't how long you know somebody that means anything. It's what that person mean to you in your heart.
Julius LesterWe remember with our emotions. The things that were important in our emotional life, that's what we remember.
Julius LesterEach of us is comprised of stories, stories not only about ourselves but stories about ancestors we never knew and people we've never met. We have stories we love to tell and stories we have never told anyone. The extent to which others know us is determined by the stories we choose to share. We extend a deep trust to someone when we say, "I'm going to tell you something I've never told anyone." Sharing stories creates trust because through stories we come to a recognition of how much we have in common.
Julius Lester