Marilyn Chandler McEntyre Quotes & Sayings

So our task as stewards of the word begins and ends in love. Loving language means cherishing it for its beauty, precision, power to enhance understanding, power to name, power to heal. And it means using words as instruments of love. — Marilyn Chandler McEntyre

Every sentence has its drumbeat. rhythm is one of the most powerful dimensions of language: it separates tribes, united families, soothes children, and shocks us into new awarenesses. Every good writer, marching to his or her own drumbeat, marks out a vibrational field as home territory. The cadences of our sentences carry echos of ancestry and influence as surely as the double helix that orchstrates the life of the body. — Marilyn Chandler McEntyre

To read well is to prepare oneself to live wisely, kindly and wittily. — Marilyn Chandler McEntyre

A story is an invitation, and a challenge, and a choice. — Marilyn Chandler McEntyre

Precision is, after all, not only a form of responsibility and a kind of pleasure, but an instrument of compassion. To be precise requires care, time, and attention to the person, place, or process being described. — Marilyn Chandler McEntyre

Listen into the silences where the best words begin. — Marilyn Chandler McEntyre

One function of the imagination in autobiographical writing is to allow the writer to try out different versions of the self. — Marilyn Chandler McEntyre

For he will speak peace to his people. . . . psalm 85:8 Peace is a language. To "speak peace" is very different from speaking of peace. To speak of peace is to reason about it. But to speak peace is to impart it. The promise in this psalm is that God will make peace with us and among us. But the phrase also serves as a reminder that our words are acts. When we speak, we may stir up animosities, suspicions, jealousies, or old hurts - or we may impart peace. Peace may be "uttered" not only in gentleness of voice when we speak, but in the choice of words that reframe, redirect, or surprise us into reconsidering. Sometimes a way of describing the problem or conflict as an opportunity for invention or imagination or learning can enable those who are stuck in a point of view to see a new way. — Marilyn Chandler McEntyre