Hello there, Literary Legends!

I am Tracey Daranjo - creator & author of QuoteCards.

For many years now I’ve been called a nerd - especially by my students - a label which I wear with a kind of pride. Principally, my “nerdiness” stems from my ardent reading, buying, sharing, window-shopping, recommending, gifting and love of books.

Books have long been my friends. Our relationship, albeit tumultuous relationship, is the one I love most.

From the short stories of Oscar Wilde or Peter Carey, to the poetry of John Keats’, to the plays of Tennessee Williams, to Rob Reiner’s fantasy film, The Princess Bride, or Jim Henson’s, The Labyrinth, to reviews in The Guardian and The New Yorker, all forms of literature fascinate me. Too often, though, during my 20 years of teaching, I had been taken aback that my students did not share the same level of fascination with literatures, so in my classroom I had to become an artist, a thespian actor, a TED talk speaker, a game show host and a magician in order to take what my students once perceived as “boring” and transform it into something magical. And inevitably, my enthusiasm became contagious (15 minutes of compulsory silent reading will also do that, but more on that later),

That magic is also what has helped to create QuoteCards. I wanted to create a tailored resource designed to demystify the richness of Shakespearean plays whilst maintaining the depth of the text’s meaning. I envisioned that a meticulously curated collection of quotes would allow users to explore the intricacies of characters, themes, and language in a way that was accessible, engaging and maximised understanding without diminishing their learning of the text itself. I wanted to transform the study of Shakespeare into an immersive experience, making it easy for students to navigate each play with clarity by providing them with a resource that seamlessly blended aesthetic design, visual organization, and tactile usability that optimised learning outcomes. Simple, refined and educational. And to this end, I am very proud to say, QuoteCards has succeeded. Yay me!

So, whether you're a student looking to decipher the allusions of Macbeth's soliloquys or a teacher seeking a tool to facilitate insightful class discussions, I hope that QuoteCards delivers an aesthetically pleasing and engaging tool for your Shakespearean journey. And hopefully you, too, can experience the magic of literature.