About this quote

Good writing changes how you see problems and feel about other people. Refusing that influence often protects a comfortable view instead of testing it. If your thinking stays the same, reading might unsettle you — and that's the point. Try letting one challenging poem or novel in and notice how your opinions sharpen or soften.

When to use it

• In a college literature seminar, when a classmate insists fiction is a waste, I bring this up to push them to read one novel outside their major.
• At a creative team meeting where someone rejects storytelling techniques, I say this line to argue that writers improve ideas by reading widely.
• When my mom refuses any memoir that questions her beliefs, I mention the quote to get her to try a short personal essay.
• Before a book club debate where one member says poetry is useless, I use the line to remind everyone that art trains empathy and thought.