Lorenzo Dow Quotes

I never deliberately learned to read, but somehow I had been wallowing illicitly in the daily papers. In the long hours of church--was it then I learned? I could not remember not being able to read hymns. Now that I was compelled to think about it, reading was something that just came to me, as learning to fasten the seat of my union suit without looking around, or achieving two bows from a snarl of shoelaces. I could not remember when the lines above Atticus's moving finger separated into words. But I had stared at them all the evenings in my memory, listening to the news of the day, Bills to Be Enacted into Laws, the diaries of Lorenzo Dow--anything Atticus happened to be reading when I crawled into his lap every night. Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.

You can and you can't — You shall and you shan't — You will and you won't — And you will be damned if you do — And you will be damned if you don't.

I could not remember when the lines above Atticus’s moving finger separated into words, but I had stared at them all the evenings in my memory, listening to the news of the day, Bills to Be Enacted into Laws, the diaries of Lorenzo Dow—anything Atticus happened to be reading when I crawled into his lap every night. Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read.

You will be damned if you do, and you will be damned if you don’t

I never deliberately learned to read, but somehow I had been wallowing illicitly in the daily papers. In the long hours of church—was it then I learned? I could not remember not being able to read hymns. Now that I was compelled to think about it, reading was something that just came to me, as learning to fasten the seat of my union suit without looking around, or achieving two bows from a snarl of shoelaces. I could not remember when the lines above Atticus’s moving finger separated into words, but I had stared at them all the evenings in my memory, listening to the news of the day, Bills to Be Enacted into Laws, the diaries of Lorenzo Dow—anything Atticus happened to be reading when I crawled into his lap every night. Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.

Non mi ero mai messa di proposito a imparare a leggere, ma mi ero in un certo senso pasciuta del fango dei quotidiani. Nelle lunghe ore passate in chiesa… è stato forse allora che ho imparato a leggere? Nel mio ricordo non esisteva un’epoca in cui non fossi capace di leggere gli inni. Ora che ero costretta a pensarci, mi pareva che la lettura fosse una cosa venutami naturalmente, come l’abbottonarmi la tuta da operaio senza guardare, o fare il doppio nodo alle scarpe da un groviglio di lacci. Non ricordavo più il momento in cui le righe che il dito di Atticus indicava, muovendosi sulla pagina, si erano separate in tante parole, mi ricordavo di aver fissato quelle righe ogni sera della mia vita, ascoltando le notizie di cronaca, il dibattito parlamentare, i diari di Lorenzo Dow, tutto quello che leggeva Atticus, la sera, quando mi arrampicavo sulle sue ginocchia. Fino al giorno in cui mi minacciarono di non lasciarmi più leggere, non seppi di amare la lettura: si ama, forse, il proprio respiro?