Robert Littell Quotes

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.

The most ordinary word, when put into place, suddenly acquires brilliance. That is the brilliance with which your images must shine.

A journalist uses the most precise words he or she can. An artist does the same sort of thing. You gather material about a particular subject, you refine it as best you can.

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.

You have to have something worth saying and then the ability to say it- writing's a double skill, really.

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

Good writing does not come from verbiage but from words.

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

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

I am a stickler for damn good writing.

The more clearly you write, the more easily and surely you will be understood.

Words, like glasses, obscure everything they do not make clear. Before using a fine word, make a place for it.

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

I'm tired of wasting letters when punctuation will do, period.

It's technically extremely difficult to get down what you really mean, not what you think you mean, or what you think sounds good, but what's really there, what you really have to express, in words that somehow convey that meaning in an approximate way.

Ambiguity is very interesting in writing; it's not very interesting in science.

The two most engaging powers of an author are to make new things familiar, familiar things new.

The right word fitly spoken is a precious rarity.

Writing is learning to say nothing, more cleverly each day.

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

I spend a lot of time writing. I get inspiration from texts rather than images.

Before the scene, before the paragraph, even before the sentence, comes the word. Individual words and phrases are the building blocks of fiction, the genes that generate everything else. Use the right words, and your fiction can blossom. The French have a phrase for it - le mot juste - the exact right word in the exact right position.

A reading man and woman is a ready man and woman, but a writing man and woman is exact.

Don't write so that you can be understood, write so that you can't be misunderstood.

In composing, as a general rule, run your pen through every other word you have written; you have no idea what vigor it will give your style.