Seneca the Younger Quotes

I've been taking my time now between projects looking for stuff that has a little bit more substance, that isn't surface. Some of the films that I've done in the past really were surface.

Do not talk a little on many subjects, but much on a few.

If somebody writes clearly, you can pretty much tell immediately if something is shallow or deep, whereas if they write with all this duckweed on the surface, you can't tell if the stream is one inch deep or a hundred fathoms.

The strokes of the pen need deliberation as much as the sword needs swiftness.

Minor writers think style is all.

We can't put up a movie that looks beautiful but doesn't have substance.

I do not waste my time writing pot-boilers: the pot must be boiled, and even my pot au feu has some chunks of fresh meat in it. ...I have no time to boil myself down; and anyhow I could not do so and preserve all the necessary nutriment and the flavoring on which the digestibility depends.

Of two evils, had not an author better be tedious than superficial! From an overflowing vessel you may gather more, indeed, than you want, but from an empty one you can gather nothing.

Style is important, but content comes first.

It is no great advantage to possess a quick wit, if it is not correct; the perfection is not speed but uniformity.

Except in the rare cases of great dynamic thinkers whose thoughts are as turning-points in the history of our race, it is by Style that writers gain distinction, by Style they secure their immortality.

Only those will apprehend religion who can probe its depth, who can combine intuition and love with the rigor of method

For a poet, style is the only morality.

Over-certified adjectives are the mark of most best-seller writing

Some authors write nonsense in a clear style, and others sense in an obscure one; some can reason without being able to persuade, others can persuade without being able to reason; some dive so deep that they descend into darkness, and others soar so high that they give us no light; and some, in a vain attempt to be cutting and dry, give us only that which is cut and dried. We should labor, therefore, to treat with ease of things that are difficult; with familiarity, of things that are novel; and with perspicuity, of things that are profound.

The point is, it didn’t really matter what the book was about. It was what it meant that was important.

Little things make the difference. Everyone is well prepared in the big things, but only the winners perfect the little things.

There is gravity in wisdom, but no particular wisdom in gravity.

Simplicity is the outward sign and symbol of depth of thought.

Royal Young's writing is that rare blend of irony and beauty.

Any work that is not rooted in myth and poetry or that does not partake of the depth and essence of the universe is merely a ghost.

Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.

I don't talk things, sir. I talk the meaning of things.

His style is chaos illumined by flashes of lightning. As a writer he has mastered everything except language.

I can speak of my own criterion for judging whether or not a book is good or bad. I ask of it a single question, From how deep and true an impulse did it spring? Was it written merely to shock? Only to make money? Or was it written to create something more perfect and more lasting than the life experience from which it came?