Grace Paley Quotes

Good writing does not come from verbiage but from words.

Broadly speaking, the short words are the best, and the old words best of all.

In true prose everything must be underlined.

Ultimately, it's about the quality of the writing whatever style you are writing.

There are people who believe in an absolutely transparent prose; with every respect for clarity of expression, I don't.

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

It behooves us to avoid archaisms. Never use a long word when a diminutive one will do.

I think in most cases, unless you're writing about a character who is garrulous, you say what you've got to say and then get out. Those little conjunctions, those little turnaround words help you do it. That's the way I like to write: I get rid of things rather than add them.

Avoid an unusual and unfamiliar word just as you would a reef.

My most important rule is one that sums up the 10: If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.

I try to write in plain brown blocks of American speech but occasionally set in an ancient word or a strange word just to startle the reader a little bit and to break up the monotony of the plain American cadence.

Writing is sometimes a balancing act between keeping things easily readable and being accurate.

Read every sentence you write out loud. If it sounds boring, kill it.

Well, in features, and in writing especially, it's often the style of the writer comes in.

The finest language is mostly made up of simple unimposing words.

I've simplified much more in my writing. I say what I've got to say, not in metaphor.

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.

A lot of writers fall in love with their sentences or their construction of sentences, and sometimes that's great, but not everybody is Gabriel Garcia Marquez or James Joyce. A lot of people like to pretend that they are, and they wind up not giving people a good read or enlightening them.

I preferred the simplest vocabulary.

One mistake with beginners in writing is, that they think it important to spin out something long. It is a great deal better not to write more than a page or two, unless you have something to say, and can write it correctly.

Why say 'utilize' when you can say 'use'?

I am a stickler for damn good writing.

When I write, I'm talking to myself constantly to make sure that it sounds OK; it has kind of a nice rhythm and a nice jump to it.

There's a perception that good writing is writing which runs smoothly. But smooth-running prose can work against what you're trying to express in a novel.

The best style of writing, as well as the most forcible, is the plainest.