Francine Prose Quotes

Why use a modifier to set straight a not-quite-right noun when the right noun is available?

It behooves us to avoid archaisms. Never use a long word when a diminutive one will do.

Writing and reading and speaking with specificity and skill has never seen more important to me than it does at this moment. It's what's between us and chaos.

The secret of all good writing is sound judgment.

I think that as you learn more about writing you learn to be direct.

Although there is no substitute for merit in writing, clarity comes closest to being one.

I love the right words. I think economy and precision of language are important.

An essential element for good writing is a good ear: One must listen to the sound of one's own prose.

The difficulty is not to write, but to write what you mean.

Whatever I'm doing, I try to write well. I try to give the reader a nice, clean well-written surface, where the writing is transparent. It probably takes me longer to write things, but it's very important to me that the writing itself be good.

From writing rapidly it does not result that one writes well, but from writing well it results that one writes rapidly.

A scrupulous writer, in every sentence that he writes, will ask himself at least four questions, thus: 1. What am I trying to say? 2. What words will express it? 3. What image or idiom will make it clearer? 4. Is this image fresh enough to have an effect?

Style means the right word. The rest matters little.

Easy reading requires hard writing.

Place yourself in the background; write in a way that comes naturally; work from a suitable design; write with nouns and verbs; do not overwrite; do not overstate; avoid the use of qualifiers; do not affect a breezy style; use orthodox spelling; do not explain too much; avoid fancy words; do not take shortcuts as the cost of clarity; prefer the standard to the offbeat; make sure the reader knows who is speaking; do not use dialect; revise and rewrite.

Use familiar words-words that your readers will understand, and not words they will have to look up. No advice is more elementary, and no advice is more difficult to accept. When we feel an impulse to use a marvelously exotic word, let us lie down until the impulse goes away.

The use of the right word, the exact word, is the difference between a pencil with a sharp point and a thick crayon.

Anything works, as long as you write it properly.

I'm just very careful with my words when I write. Obsessively careful. I'm the sort of person who worries about the difference between "slim" and "slender."

I think what's really hard is making sense and making what you write clear and smooth-flowing.

My most important rule is one that sums up the 10: If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.

In good writing, words become one with things.

Hard writing makes easy reading.

Good writing does not come from verbiage but from words.

Don't write so that you can be understood, write so that you can't be misunderstood.