Miriam Margolyes Quotes

I know I have a problem with semi-colon abuse and have written page-long sentences. Nobody needs to be reading page-long sentences, at least not written by me.

I am gennerally understood tho I do not use that awkward squad of pointings called commas colons semicolons etc.

The proper words in the proper places are the true definition of style.

The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter - 'tis the difference between the lightning-bug and the lightning.

I ain't no author, man... my writing skills are not of 'New York Times' best-seller quality, trust and believe it ain't. My vocabulary ain't.

I really enjoy finding the right word, creating a good, flowing sentence. I enjoy the rhythm of the words.

The right word fitly spoken is a precious rarity.

I like commas. I detest semi-colons - I don't think they belong in a story. And I gave up quotation marks long ago. I found I didn't need them, they were fly-specks on the page.

Words are the coins making up the currency of sentences, and there are always too many small coins.

I think in any writing you're paying attention to detail.

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

Now every time I start to put a word on paper, I’ll wonder whether it’s an expensive $10 word, or a little, unimportant word like ‘is’ or ‘and’ that only costs $1.75.

A writer should care about one thing - the language. To write well - that is his duty. That is his only duty.

Names and other proper nouns shouldn't distract from the language.

I believe so deeply in the primacy of language, in lifting your prose to the highest level you're capable of and making your words symphonic.

There are people who have tremendously important things to say, but they say it so poorly that nobody would ever want to read it.

I think my prose reads as if English were my second language. By the time I get to the end of a paragraph, I'm dodging bullets and gasping for breath.

I'm very bad at ending sentences. A lot times I just want to say, 'That's the end of my sentence. I have nothing more to say.'

Mark Twain said, 'The right word is to the nearly right word as lightning is to the lightning bug.' Fill your book with lightning.

I have been fighting over commas all my life.

I have not written a perfect sentence, in the literary sense. It's a lot easier to throw a perfect pass than to write a perfect sentence, if that sentence is meant to perform more than a mechanical function.

I like playing around with the words; I love it when I feel like I've picked the exact right word to describe whatever it is I'm trying to describe.

I'm a 'frotteur,' someone who likes to rub words in his hand, to turn them around and feel them, to wonder if that really is the best word possible. Does that word in this sentence have any electric potential? Does it do anything? Too much electricity will make your reader's hair frizzy. There's a question of pacing.

I was born into a profession in which my love of words, chosen with care for their meaning and nuance, was extremely important, not only to me, but also to the people with whom I worked with.

Every sentence stands on its own. Whether that's fair or not, that's kind of the way it is.