Quintilian Quotes

By writing quickly we are not brought to write well, but by writing well we are brought to write quickly.

Write quickly and you will never write well; write well, and you will soon write quickly.

A.J. Liebling, one of my heroes, used to say that he could write better than anyone who wrote faster, and faster than anyone who could write better. I'm one nine-hundredth as good as Liebling, but that principle may slightly apply.

There is no pleasure in the world like writing well and going fast.

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

The secret of all good writing is sound judgment.

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.

Good writers hate bad writing but hating bad writing doesn’t make you good. Writing badly does.

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

There is no left and right in writing. There is only good and bad writing.

Once something is well-written, then everything else is gravy.

Disorganizatio n is the enemy of good writing.

It's easy to write something average or even something good. But writing well is quite challenging.

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 person who can write a long letter with ease, cannot write ill.

Easy reading is damn hard writing. But if it's right, it's easy. It's the other way round, too. If it's slovenly written, then it's hard to read. It doesn't give the reader what the careful writer can give the reader.

I write fast, I write beautifully, I write convincingly.

Ultimately, the first, best step in getting your work noticed is to write good work. If people don't engage in your writing, no amount of serialization or free downloads is going to matter. You have to write something worth reading, and often it takes time to get at that level.

There is no way of writing well and also of writing easily.

Good writers are those who keep the language efficient. That is to say, keep it accurate, keep it clear.

I am a stickler for damn good writing.

Editors, for the most part, don't care ''what'' you've done, or how astounding the physical event may have been. You need to write well. Many others are capable of doing what you have done (probably), so you must write better than they.