Jonathan Swift Quotes

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

When you combine something to say with the skill to say it properly, then you've got a good writer.

I enjoy finding the right word and giving each its full measure, its full space in a sentence.

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.

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

My favorite writers have been those who've said things well.

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

Easy reading is damn hard writing.

You write with ease to show your breeding, but easy writing's curst hard reading.

I cannot speak well enough to be unintelligible.

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.

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

Good writing is everything.

Good style in prose is always hostage to the precision, speed, and laconic intensity of poetic diction.

When I speak, I am well articulated.

I'm not very articulate. I don't have that skill.

Respect the language in which you write. Be kind, develop good vocabulary, and be creative in writing beautiful sentences. Your prose should be your poetry when you write.

Fine writing is a distinct disadvantage. So is unique literary style. They take attention from the subject

The tongue is the only tool that gets sharper with use.

Talking and eloquence are not the same: to speak, and to speak well, are two things.

The perfection of style consists in the use of the exact speech necessary to convey the sense in the fewest words consistent with perspicuity, at the same time having regard to appropriateness and harmony of expression. Its greater excellencies are directness, accuracy, appropriateness and perspicuity.

To write you have to be able to know how to put words together.

Writing comes more easily if you have something to say.

But everything written has style. The list of ingredients on the side of a cornflakes box has style. And everything literary has literary style. And style is integral to a work. How something is told correlates with - more - makes what's being told. A story is its style.

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.