“There's nothing like a shovel full of dirt to encourage literacy.”

— Margaret Atwood , book The Blind Assassin

Source: The Blind Assassin

Last update June 3, 2021. History

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Margaret Atwood 348

Canadian writer 1939

Mignon McLaughlin (1913–1983) American journalist

The Complete Neurotic's Notebook (1981), Unclassified

“Childhood feels so permanent, like it's the entire world, and then one day it's over and you're shoveling wet dirt onto your father's coffin, stunned at the impermanence of everything.”

Jonathan Tropper (1970) American writer

Source: This is Where I Leave You

“When we started in 1947, I think 18% or something was the literacy rate in India. Now it is 52%. It is not a disastrous performance but it is not sufficient, certainly. But some parts of India have done better, my own State of Kerala has done remarkably well. Tamil Nadu is achieving greater success in literacy, so is Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. The State of Himachal, is more or less reaching 100% literacy. Some of the states of the North-East have full literacy today. So, the movement of literacy has been uneven, but progressive.”

K. R. Narayanan (1920–2005) 9th Vice President and the 10th President of India

Shri K. R. Narayanan President of India in Conversation with N. Ram on Doordarshan and All India Radio

“Do you shovel to survive, or survive to shovel?”

Kóbó Abe book The Woman in the Dunes

Source: The Woman in the Dunes

“If I had a hammer, I'd build a city on stilts so my feet would stay dry when God's wine glass tilts. If I had a shovel, I'd dig a hole in the dirt and I'll be hiding when his drunken stupor lands upon earth”

Aesop Rock (1976) American rapper

"Tugboat Complex" from the album Labor Days. Archived at " The Original Hip-Hop (Rap) Lyrics Archive http://ohhla.com/anonymous/aesoprck/rm_bside/tugboat.rck.txt," Accessed May 22, 2014.

“Nothing would give up life:
Even the dirt kept breathing a small breath.”

Theodore Roethke (1908–1963) American poet

"Root Cellar," ll. 10-11
The Lost Son and Other Poems (1948)

“In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.”

Margaret Atwood book Bluebeard's Egg

Source: Bluebeard's Egg

“He's become like that briefcase in the ground-full of gems yet void of light, so nothing sparkles, nothing shines.”

Neal Shusterman book Unwind

Source: Unwind

“The encouragement of light-mindedness about traditional philosophical topics serves the same purposes as does the encouragement of light-mindedness about traditional theological topics. Like the rise of large market economies, the increase in literacy, the proliferation of artistic genres, and the insouciant pluralism of contemporary culture, such philosophical superficiality and light-mindedness helps along the disenchantment of the world. It helps make the world’s inhabitants more pragmatic, more tolerant, more liberal, more receptive to the appeal of instrumental rationality.”

Richard Rorty (1931–2007) American philosopher

"The priority of democracy to philosophy"

“Dirt Deeds Done Dirt Cheap”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Kiss of the Night

“There's nothing like a shovel full of dirt to encourage literacy.”

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Margaret Atwood 348

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