About this quote

Truly great art yields more of itself when we return to it with fresh eyes. Think about how much you change in five years; the words on the page stay the same, but you bring a completely different person to the table. You catch the quiet details and the subtle setups you dismissed the first time around. If a piece of writing only works once, it was probably just a delivery system for a plot twist. Go back to the things that shaped you and see what they have to tell you now.

When to use it

• Your roommate asks why you are reading the same philosophy text again, and you tell them, 'You can't truly appreciate a deep book if you only scan it once for a grade.'
• You are reading a classic novel to your daughter and find yourself noticing details you missed as a kid, saying, 'We are definitely starting this over next week so we can catch all the clues.'
• Your colleague wants to throw away a business guide after one quick read, so you say, 'Keep it on your shelf; you will need to read that again when you actually start managing people.'