--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Evere since I was first to read, then…" description: "\"“Evere since I was first to read, then started reading to myself, there has never been a line read that I didn't hear. As my eyes followed the sentence..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/235/eudora-welty-1564_books_evere-since-i-was-first-to-read-then-sta_3101327.jpg" --- # Evere since I was first to read, then started reading to… ![“Evere since I was first to read, then started reading to myself, there has never been a line read that I didn't hear. As my eyes followed the sentence, a voice was saying it silently to me. It wasn't my mother's voice, or the voice of any person I can identify, certainly not my own. It is human…” quote by Eudora Welty](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/235/eudora-welty-1564_books_evere-since-i-was-first-to-read-then-sta_3101327.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/235/eudora-welty-1564_books_evere-since-i-was-first-to-read-then-sta_3101327.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/235/eudora-welty-1564_books_evere-since-i-was-first-to-read-then-sta_3101327.jpg) > ““Evere since I was first to read, then started reading to myself, there has never been a line read that I didn't hear. As my eyes followed the sentence, a voice was saying it silently to me. It wasn't my mother's voice, or the voice of any person I can identify, certainly not my own. It is human, but inward, and it is inwardly that I listen to it. It is to me the voice of the poem or the story itself. The cadence, whatever it is that asks you to believe, the feeling that resides in the printed word, reaches me through the reader-voice. I have supposed, but never found out, that this is the case with all readers - to read as listeners - and with all writers, to write as listeners. It may be part of the desire to write. The sound of what falls on the page begins the process of testing it for truth, for me. Whether I am right to trust so far I don't know. By now I don;t know whether I could do either one, reading or writing, without the other.”” [Eudora Welty](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/eudora-welty/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Reading is an internal dialogue where the text speaks to us, and writing is listening to that inner voice, creating a reciprocal relationship. **In simple terms:** Reading and writing involve listening to an inner voice. Key Takeaway Cultivate listening to the inner voice of text. Themes creativity reflection communication Mood contemplative inquisitive Type literary philosophical When to use this quote - writing workshops - literary analysis - personal journaling Key Concepts inner dialogue literary perception Questions to Reflect On - How does your inner voice guide your writing? - Can you separate authorial intent from personal interpretation? A Different Perspective May overlook external feedback. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Books](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/books/) [Inner voice](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/inner-voice/) [Parenting](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/parenting/) [Poetry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/poetry/) [Reading](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/reading/) [Truth](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/truth/) [Writing](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/writing/) ## Related quotes > [“I'll now fall back a furlong or two in me chair, while me larned but misguided collagues r-read th' Histhry iv Iceland to show…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/finley-peter-dunne/i-ll-now-fall-back-a-furlong-or-two-in-me-chair-while-me-larned-but/) [Finley Peter Dunne](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/finley-peter-dunne/) > [You don’t read or overhear the voice in the poem, you are the voice in the poem.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/helen-vendler/you-don-t-read-or-overhear-the-voice-in-the-poem-you-are-the-voice-in/) [Helen Vendler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/helen-vendler/) > [One poem or story doesn't matter one way or the other. It's the process of writing and life that matters.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/natalie-goldberg/one-poem-or-story-doesn-t-matter-one-way-or-the-other-it-s-the/) [Natalie Goldberg](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/natalie-goldberg/) > [If that voice that you created that is most alive in the poem isn't carried throughout the whole poem, then I destroy where it's…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/philip-levine/if-that-voice-that-you-created-that-is-most-alive-in-the-poem-isn-t/) [Philip Levine](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/philip-levine/) > [I believe that poems are a score for performance by the reader, and that you become the speaking voice. 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Readers read.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/roderick-townley/the-sun-shines-readers-read/) Roderick Townley > [If you ask 20 different readers why they read, they will all be right.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/teresa-nielsen-hayden/if-you-ask-20-different-readers-why-they-read-they-will-all-be-right/) [Teresa Nielsen Hayden](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/teresa-nielsen-hayden/) > [“Real readers re-read good books.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/darrell-bain/real-readers-re-read-good-books/) Darrell Bain ## More by Eudora Welty > [“She (my mother) could still recite them (the poems) in full when she was lying helpless and nearly blind, in her bed, an old…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/eudora-welty/she-my-mother-could-still-recite-them-the-poems-in-full-when-she-was/) [Eudora Welty](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/eudora-welty/) > [Long before I wrote stories, I listened for stories. Listening for them is something more acute than listening to them. 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The cadence, whatever it is that asks you to believe, the feeling that resides in the printed word, reaches me through the reader-voice. I have supposed, but never found out, that this is the case with all readers - to read as listeners - and with all writers, to write as listeners. It may be part of the desire to write. The sound of what falls on the page begins the process of testing it for truth, for me. Whether I am right to trust so far I don't know. 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