Barbara Tuchman Quotes

The secret of all good writing is sound judgment.

All the elements of good writing depend on the writer's skill in choosing one word instead of another.

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.

Read and write with a sensitive ear. The craft of writing is very important. Practice the craft.

Writers cannot simply have a go, imagining it's easier to produce a story than a novel because fewer words are required. Have a go by all means; be intrepid, but be equipped.

I've found that writers who don't read really can't write.

The secret of successful writing lies in striking the right keys on the typewriter.

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

I think each writer has to seek her most energetic prose style. She has to find a way to write so that nobody can deny it.

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

No matter what you write, it's a matter of putting words in a certain order so that the reader will be interested in what you're writing.

I learned to write by writing.

A fluent writer always seems more talented than he is. To write well, one needs a natural felicity and an acquired difficulty.

Nothing is more satisfying than to write a good sentence. It is no fun to write lumpishly, dully, in prose the reader must plod through like wet sand. But it is a pleasure to achieve, if one can, a clear running prose that is simple yet full of surprises. This does not just happen. It requires skill, hard work, a good ear, and continued practice.

Prose talent depends on having something to say and an interesting, highly developed way of saying it.

Ready writing makes not good writing, but good writing brings on ready writing.

He that will write well in any tongue must follow this counsel of Aristotle: to speak as the common people do, to think as wise men do.

read widely, not in order to copy someone else's style, but to learn to appreciate and recognize good writing and to see how the best writers have achieved their result. Poor writing is, unfortunately, infectious and should be avoided.

Anything works, as long as you write it properly.

A young writer is easily tempted by the allusive and ethereal and ironic and reflective, but the declarative is at the bottom of most good writing.

Learn to write well, or not to write at all.

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

To write simply is as difficult as to be good.