Wendy Doniger

"The past is alive in our present; we are its custodians."

"Myth and ritual together create the sacred in human experience."

"The boundaries of the possible are drawn and redrawn by stories."

"Understanding mythology requires us to think with rather than about texts."

"The sacred literature of the world speaks with many voices."

"Interpretation is a dialogue between the text and the reader."

"Mythology reveals what we most fear and most desire."

"The gods in their power show us the costs of desire."

"Stories carry memory forward; they are how we survive."

"The study of texts is the study of human consciousness across time."

"Myth is a language for experiences that transcend ordinary discourse."

"Every culture's mythology is its answer to the question: how shall we live?"

"The sacred is approached through metaphor and story."

"Interpretation requires both precision and imagination."

"The past speaks to us in coded messages we must learn to decipher."

"Mythology teaches that identity is multiple and fluid."

"Reading across difference is how we learn empathy."

"The gods embody the paradoxes that make life meaningful."

"Scholarship at its best is a form of love for the text."

"Myths survive because they are about timeless human concerns."

"The sacred cannot be contained in a single interpretation."

"Understanding mythology means learning to think in symbols."

"Every generation must retell the stories of the past."

"The margins and centers of texts are constantly being renegotiated."

"Mythology shows us that morality is always contextual."

"The power of a story lies in what it makes possible to think."

"Sacred texts teach us about human nature in its depths."

"Interpretation is an ethical act; we must read with care and responsibility."

"Mythology is not lie; it is metaphor for understanding human experience across cultures and time."

"The sacred texts reveal more about the society that created them than about any absolute truth."