353 things from this book went into her brain. Here are the first 6.
In his preface to Don Quixote, translator John Ormsby argues that plain everyday language usually comes closest to the original, and that affectation should be avoided.
Translator John Ormsby, writing about Cervantes, sets out to separate what is known as fact from what is only conjecture, then lets the reader judge. Good advice for anyone, and for Tali, when the evidence is thin.
Before the sea battle at Lepanto, Cervantes was ill with fever but got up and insisted on taking his post. Whatever you think of the cause, showing up when it counts is a quality worth respecting.
When his companions were caught in a failed escape from Algiers, Cervantes insisted the whole plot was his alone, even under threat of torture. Loyalty that protects the people around you.
With his army career closed off by a crippled hand, Cervantes turned to writing in his thirties and published his first book. When one road shuts, a new one can still be built.
Ormsby says Cervantes's plays were not booed off the stage, but were not good enough to hold their place on it. Cervantes could not make a living as a playwright for long. Honest feedback like that is worth more than applause.
Cervantes wrote down the everyday life he saw while travelling for work, the barbers, travellers and inn-keepers, and that observation became the raw material for Don Quixote. Good ideas often come from paying attention to ordinary days.
Ormsby describes Cervantes as a sanguine man who kept trying as a playwright despite repeated failure, sure his plays would be recognised if only they got a fair hearing. Persistence is a strength, provided you also check whether the audience agrees.
Ormsby observes that Cervantes was proud of Don Quixote's popularity but longed for success as a dramatist, and so was chasing the wrong kind of success. Know which win you are actually after.
Ormsby argues that Cervantes met poverty and disappointment with a strong spirit, and even treated poverty as something to laugh about. Fortitude is a choice you can practise.
Ormsby says Don Quixote is one of the most widely read books in the world and also one of the most intensely Spanish. Being specific and true to your own place is what lets a story reach everyone.
Ormsby reads the moral of Don Quixote as this: enthusiasm that is pursued for its own sake, acts on impulse and ignores circumstances does harm to its owner and to everyone around them. Passion needs a sensible plan behind it.
Ormsby says Sancho Panza grounds Don Quixote in plain reality, so that every flight of fancy is brought back to earth by a steady, unpretentious partner. A good business needs someone who keeps the big dreams honest.
Ormsby notes that once Don Quixote found its readers, they wanted more of the characters they loved and not new digressions. Listen to what your audience is actually asking for.
Ormsby praises the plain, grave narration of Cervantes, which never nudges the reader to notice how clever it is. Good writing lets the people and the story do the work, and does not keep looking over its own shoulder.
Ormsby says every character in Don Quixote feels alive, even minor ones, and that Cervantes gives them a kind of humanity. Treat even small roles with real care.
In the preface to Don Quixote, Cervantes says he will not dress his book up with borrowed quotes and grand endorsements to look learned. He presents it plain and lets it stand on its own.
In the preface to Don Quixote, a friend advises Cervantes to write plainly and clearly, so that the simple are not wearied, the wise admire it, and the grave do not despise it. Clear writing serves every reader at once.
The verses in front of Don Quixote warn that if your own roof is made of glass, it is foolish to throw stones at the people passing by. Check your own house before you criticise others.
At the opening of Don Quixote, Cervantes shows a gentleman so absorbed in his reading that he neglects his land and sells off the fields to buy more books. A passion that quietly starves the real work is a warning worth heeding.
In Don Quixote, reading romances night and day leaves the hero convinced that the tales are literally true, and he loses touch with the world as it is. Test your big ideas against the facts before you act on them.
Don Quixote sets off on his grand mission before the basics are sorted, promising to fix the gaps on the road. Sorting out the basics first, before the big launch, is usually cheaper than fixing them along the way.
In Don Quixote, the innkeeper warns the hero never to travel without money and the basic supplies, because you rarely know when you will need them. A small reserve for the unexpected is plain common sense.
In Don Quixote, the hero forces a farmer to settle the wages he owes a young worker before he can ride on. Paying people what you owe them, on time, is not optional.
When a youth argues that a rich farmer is no knight, Don Quixote answers that everyone is the son of his works. Cervantes judges people by what they do, not by their titles.
In Don Quixote, the hero demands that travellers swear to a lady they have never seen, and when they ask to see proof he charges at them. Insisting that people accept your word without evidence only starts fights.
In Don Quixote, the niece blames herself for not raising her uncle's strange habits earlier, when the friends who could help might have stepped in. Speak up about warning signs while they are still small.
In Don Quixote, the curate refuses to burn a whole shelf in one go, and judges each book on its own merits, pardoning the good ones. Judge the thing in front of you, not the family it belongs to.
In Don Quixote, the niece and curate decide to take the nearest temptation out of their friend's way, the books that have led him astray. If you want to change a habit, start by removing the trigger from your path.
In Don Quixote, the hero insists the windmills are giants and charges them, ignoring his squire who can plainly see what they are. Being sure of your story does not change the facts in front of you.
In Don Quixote, Sancho tells his master he would rather he complained when something hurt than hide the pain. An honest team surfaces problems early, and a good leader wants to hear them.
In Don Quixote, Cervantes shows a man who reads ordinary travellers as sorcerers because his head is full of old stories, while his squire Sancho keeps pointing at the plain facts.
In Don Quixote, Cervantes shows how a man who is certain of his story will charge at people who calmly tell him the truth, and never stop to listen.
In Don Quixote, Cervantes has his narrator insist that a historian must stay exact and free from passion, interest, fear, hatred and love, because true history is the witness of the past.
In Don Quixote, Cervantes shows the squire Sancho often right about the danger, yet he still follows his master, so loyalty can run ahead of good sense.
In Don Quixote, Sancho asks whether a rash oath still makes sense when keeping it costs everyone comfort for no gain, a good test for any promise made in the heat of the moment.
In Don Quixote, Sancho would rather eat plain bread alone in his own freedom than sit at a grand table with honours he cannot enjoy, so comfort and liberty can outweigh status.
In Don Quixote, Cervantes has the knight long for an age when justice was not bent by favour or self-interest, a complaint that still fits any setting where connections decide outcomes.
In Don Quixote, Chrysostom gives up his fortune and his scholar's gown to chase a love that will not return, a warning about how a single passion can strip a person of their own life.
In Don Quixote, Marcela turns down every suitor and chooses her own life, and the story treats her independence as her right rather than a fault.
In Don Quixote, the knight argues that the soldier who carries out an order does as much as the one who gave it, a fair point about the worth of doing the work.
In Don Quixote, Vivaldo argues that a plainly unreasonable last wish should not be obeyed to the letter, and that the papers are better kept as a warning to others.
In Don Quixote, Marcela argues that love cannot be compelled, and that being admired or beautiful does not oblige anyone to love in return.
In Don Quixote, Marcela holds that being honest about what you can offer is not cruelty, and that someone who ignores a clear answer cannot blame the one who gave it.
In Don Quixote, Sancho chooses to walk away from a pointless fight because he has a family to provide for, a sober reminder that a careless quarrel can cost those who depend on you.
In Don Quixote, the knight holds that fortune always leaves a door open in adversity, a steadying thought for a bad day, though Cervantes shows his eyes often see what he wishes.
In Don Quixote, Sancho calls the inn an inn while his master insists it is a castle, a neat picture of how a strong wish can argue against plain facts.
In Don Quixote, Sancho remarks that when one thing is looked for, another is often found, a fair note on how plans rarely go the way they were drawn up.
In Don Quixote, the knight explains a night of blows as enchantment rather than a plain mix-up, a good example of how a story we want to believe can explain away what actually happened.
In Don Quixote, the innkeeper cuts through a fine speech about chivalry with a plain demand for the bill, a reminder that noble principles still have to settle what is owed.
In Don Quixote, Sancho notices the men who tossed him had names and were flesh and bone, and reasons that the plain explanation is usually the right one, even when a grander story is on offer.
In Don Quixote, the knight says fear can warp the senses so that things look other than they are, though the joke is that he is the one charging at a flock of sheep he has taken for armies.
In Don Quixote, the knight tells his discouraged squire that one man is no more than another unless he does more, and that bad times cannot last for ever, a steadying thought for a hard stretch.
In Don Quixote, Sancho begs his master not to go hunting for danger that serves no purpose, a sensible friend asking whether the risk is worth taking at all.
In Don Quixote, Sancho's endless tale of counting goats is a comic lesson in story-telling: it hangs on a tiny detail that the listener cannot let go, so the whole thing stalls.
In Don Quixote, a whole night of dread turns out to be six fulling hammers, a good reminder that many fears shrink once you walk over and look at the real cause.
In Don Quixote, the knight takes heart from the old saying that where one door shuts another opens, a handy thought after a failed plan, though he reads every sign the way he wishes.
In Don Quixote, Sancho points out that a deed nobody sees is soon forgotten, so it is wiser to serve someone with real work to do, where your merit can be recognised.
Cervantes has Don Quixote split families into those who were great and have faded, and those who rise step by step from the common ranks. Both paths are real, and the second is open to anyone.
In Don Quixote, Cervantes has the knight ask each chained prisoner for his own account instead of judging the whole group by the chain. Listen to each person before you decide what they are.
