Claudia Rankine Quotes

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 more words you have at your disposal, the more precisely you can express yourself.

The way for a person to develop a style is (a) to know exactly what he wants to say, and (b) to be sure he is saying exactly that.

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

In good writing, words become one with things.

I welcome new words, or old words used in new ways, provided the result is more precision, added color or greater expressiveness.

Don't use words too big for the subject. Don't say 'infinitely' when you mean 'very'; otherwise you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite.

When you use words loosely, without care and consideration, you erode trust in yourself and in what you're saying. When you squander words, you diminish your power.

I like good strong words that mean something.

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

It may be observed, that very polished languages, and such as are praised for their superior clearness and perspicuity, are generally deficient in strength.

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

He who thinks much says but little in proportion to his thoughts. He selects that language which will convey his ideas in the most explicit and direct manner.

The fight against bad English is not frivolous.

To reason with poorly chosen words is like using a pair of scales with inaccurate weights.

The reason to stand up for punctuation is that without it there is no reliable way of communicating meaning.

He that uses his words loosely and unsteadily will either not be minded or not understood.

Within seconds thoughts become words that slip off our tongue and into the world. Pausing before we speak may seem cumbersome, but it allows us to decide: Is this helpful? Does this need to be said now? What is the best way to say this?

If we are understood, more words are unnecessary; if we are not likely to be understood, they are useless.

There are so many people, especially among our comrades, who imagine that words are nothing - on the contrary, isn't it true that saying a thing well is as interesting and as difficult as painting it?

Use the right word, not its second cousin.

So in writing, there is always a right word, and every other than that is wrong. There is no beauty in words except in their collocation. The effect of a fanciful word misplaced, is like that of a horn of exquisite polish growing on a human head.

One should aim not at being possible to understand, but at being impossible to misunderstand.

Good writing ... involves the agony of turning profoundly difficult thoughts into lucid form, then forcing them into the tight-fitting uniform of language, making them visible and clear.

The real problem in speech is not precise language. The problem is clear language.