Jean de la Bruyere Quotes

Eloquence must be grounded on the plainest narrative. Afterwards, it may warm itself until it exhales symbols of every kind and color, speaks only through the most poetic forms; but first and last, it must still be at bottom a biblical statement of fact.

To handle a language skillfully is to practice a kind of evocative sorcery.

Bright is the ring of words When the right man rings them.

Eloquence is vehement simplicity.

There is no talent so pernicious as eloquence to those who have it under command.

I am convinced more and more day by day that fine writing is next to fine doing, the top thing in the world.

The - writing is a kind of act of aggression, and a person who is not aggressive in his normal, may I say, intercourse with humanity might well be an aggressive writer.

In the world of words the imagination is one of the forces of nature.

If you write beautifully, you write beautifully, that's all.

This is the gift all writers seek-to write language that incandesces yet does not melt.

I was always aware, reading Chesterton, that there was someone writing this who rejoiced in words, who deployed them on the page as an artist deploys his paints upon his palette. Behind every Chesterton sentence there was someone painting with words, and it seemed to me that at the end of any particularly good sentence or any perfectly-put paradox, you could hear the author, somewhere behind the scenes, giggling with delight.

Nature's chief masterpiece is writing well.

Eloquence, to produce her full effect, should start from the head of the orator, as Pallas from the brain of Jove, completely armed and equipped. Diffidence, therefore, which is so able a mentor to the writer, would prove a dangerous counsellor for the orator.

There is no eloquence without a man behind it.

A writer's work may be a coded autobiography, but only a very close friend could decipher it.

The cliché is dead poetry. English, being the language of an imaginative race, abounds in clichés, so that English literature is always in danger of being poisoned by its own secretions.

I love playing and I love singing, and the writing. There's kind of a symbiotic relationship between the writing and the playing.

I place my fingers upon these keys typing 2,000 dreams per minute and naked of spirit dance forth my cosmic vortex upon this crucifix called language.

Royal Young's writing is that rare blend of irony and beauty.

Writing is a necessity and often a pleasure, but at the same time, it can be a great burden and a terrible struggle.

Everybody can write poetry, just like everybody knows how to make love.

I don't think poetry will die, but I think that poetry does demand a certain kind of attention to language.

There's a marvelous sense of mastery that comes with writing a sentence that sounds exactly as you want it to.

Writing is not apart from living. Writing is a kind of double living.

I've written some poetry, but...songs have to be more poetic, and I've really gotten to this non-poetic sort of writing.