"To me, there's no point in writing merely to entertain."

Wisdom

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Insight & Reflection

This reflection on wisdom by Bebe Moore Campbell resonates across generations. It highlights a fundamental truth about human nature: our continuous search for meaning in wisdom is what ultimately defines our character and our path forward.

About Bebe Moore Campbell

Bebe Moore Campbell was an American author, journalist, and teacher. Campbell was the author of three New York Times bestsellers: Brothers and Sisters, Singing in the Comeback Choir, and What You Owe Me, which was also a Los Angeles Times "Best Book of 2001". Her other works include the novel Your Blues Ain't Like Mine, which was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and the winner of the NAACP Image Award for Literature; her memoir, Sweet Summer: Growing Up With and Without My Dad; and her first nonfiction book, Successful Women, Angry Men: Backlash in the Two-Career Marriage. Her essays, articles, and excerpts appear in many anthologies.

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Editorial Note: This quote is curated and fact-checked by the ShortQuote Editorial Team. Verified Literature Specialist.

More by Bebe Moore Campbell

"I had an agent who spent eight years - eight years! - trying to sell my stories. She sold other people's work; she just didn't sell mine."

— Bebe Moore Campbell
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"African-Americans know about racism, but I don't think we really know the causes. I decided it's first of all a family problem."

— Bebe Moore Campbell
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"I have to entertain, because if I don't entertain you, you're not going to continue reading. But if I'm not out to enlighten, or change your mind about something, or change your behavior, then I really don't want to take the journey."

— Bebe Moore Campbell
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"I would get up at 3 in the morning and write. Or sometimes I would write at midnight. Or I would write when my child napped. It wasn't a burden. I was so enthused about what I was doing at the time that I really didn't mind."

— Bebe Moore Campbell
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More about Wisdom

"Wisdom principle 42 tells us that the journey of life is lesson 8."

— David M. Alexander
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"It is a unyielding truth that the roots of genuine insight grow deep in the soil of quiet observation — an essential principle for the reflective life."

— Louis Auchincloss
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"It has been said that 80% of what people learn is visual."

— Allen Klein
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"Basketball, in America, is like a culture. It is like a foreigner learning a new language. It is difficult to learn foreign languages and it will also be difficult for me to learn the culture for basketball here."

— Yao Ming
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