Quotes on writing

On the act of writing
On style
On being concise
On writing letters
On editing

On the act of writing

By writing we learn to write. – French proverb

I do not like to write – I like to have written. – Gloria Steinem

Every writer I know has trouble writing. – Joseph Heller

I love being a writer. What I can't stand is the paperwork. – Peter De Vries

Writing comes more easily if you have something to say. – Sholem Asch

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On style

George Orwell’s six rules of clear English
1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
2. Never use a long word where a short one will do.
3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
4. Never use the passive where you can use the active.
5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous. – Politics and the English Language (1946)

Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass. – Anton Chekhov

The best style is the style you don't notice. – Somerset Maugham

Do not put statements in the negative form.
And don't start sentences with a conjunction.
If you reread your work, you will find on rereading that
a great deal of repetition can be avoided by rereading and editing.
Never use a long word when a diminutive one will do.
Unqualified superlatives are the worst of all.
De-accession euphemisms.
If any word is improper at the end of a sentence, a linking verb is.
Avoid trendy locutions that sound flaky.
Last, but not least, avoid cliches like the plague. – William Safire, Great Rules of Writing

A good style should show no signs of effort. What is written should seem a happy accident. – W. Somerset Maugham, Summing Up, 1938

As to the adjective, when in doubt, strike it out. – Mark Twain, Pudd'nhead Wilson, 1894

A story should have a beginning, a middle, and an end... but not necessarily in that order. – Jean Luc Godard

Don't use words too big for the subject. Don't say 'infinitely' when you mean 'very'. Otherwise you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite.' – CS Lewis

When something can be read without effort, great effort has gone into its writing. – Enrique Jardiel Poncela

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On being concise

One of the really bad things you can do to your writing is to dress up the vocabulary, looking for long words because you're maybe a little bit ashamed of your short ones. – Stephen King

Say all you have to say in the fewest possible words, or your reader will be sure to skip them; and in the plainest possible words or he will certainly misunderstand them. – John Ruskin

I try to leave out the parts that people skip. – Elmore Leonard

Have something to say, and say it as clearly as you can. That is the only secret. – Matthew Arnold

I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.– Mark Twain

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On letters

I consider it a good rule for letter-writing to leave unmentioned what the recipient already knows, and instead tell him something new. – Sigmund Freud

Never write a letter while you are angry. – Chinese proverb

It takes two to write a letter as much as it takes two to make a quarrel. – Elizabeth Drew

What a lot we lost when we stopped writing letters. You can't reread a phone call. – Liz Carpenter

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On editing

The time to begin writing an article is when you have finished it to your satisfaction. By that time you begin to clearly and logically perceive what it is you really want to say. – Mark Twain

Easy reading is damn hard writing. – Nathaniel Hawthorne

Proofread carefully to see if you any words out. – Author unknown

Read over your compositions, and when you meet a passage which you think is particularly fine, strike it out. – Samuel Johnson, "Recalling the Advice of a College Tutor," Boswell, Life of Johnson, 1791

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