What to do about “exceptionally fine writing”
“Whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing, obey it…and delete it before sending your manuscript to the press.” Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch
Quotations
What are you reading?
If we encounter a man of rare intellect, we should ask him what books he reads. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Brevity and Clarity
“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
Motivations for Writing
Sir, no man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money. ~ Samuel Johnson Instead of marvelling with Johnson, how anything but profit should incite men to literary labour, I am rather surprised that mere emolument should induce them to labour so well. ~ Thomas Green … Read more