William Safire Quotes

A lot of people use the dictionary to find out how to spell words.

Every time I have to look up a word in the dictionary, I'm delighted.

I'm a massive fan of the dictionary.

I hear what they're saying. I ask my English tutor, 'What is this word 'tinkerer?''

My favorite books are a constantly changing list, but one favorite has remained constant: the dictionary. Is the word I want to use spelled practice or practise? The dictionary knows. The dictionary also slows down my writing because it is such interesting reading that I am distracted.

The trouble with the dictionary is that you have to know how a word is spelled before you can look it up to see how it is spelled.

I've been obsessed with words since I was a little girl, and I am fortunate that each week as resident word expert on 'Countdown' I am ideally placed to quiz my guests in dictionary corner about the words and phrases they use.

The dictionary is, however, only a rough draft.

Always, as a child, I would go around the house, and if I found a word that I didn't know the meaning of, I would write it down and ask my parents to define it and try to memorise it.

I used to go through the dictionary looking for unusual but nontechnical words. At one time, I thought the greatest word was 'jejune' and I would throw it into every piece because something about it appealed to me.

I bought a dictionary. First thing I did was, I looked up the word "dictionary", and it said "you're an asshole".

It's in the dictionary. And when I find what it is, I'll write it down in case it comes up again, I'll be certain to avoid it.

If you have a big enough dictionary, just about everything is a word.

There are about 30 words around you all the time, like 'thread' or 'exit.'

I don't understand the word 'hunk.'

If a word in the dictionary were misspelled, how would we know?

I once tried to read the dictionary. It didn't work.

I was fascinated by the shape of words even before I knew what they meant.

I keep a big, fat dictionary with me while writing.

In the secret pocket, she often kept a small pocket dictionary, which she would take out whenever she encountered a word she did not know.

A word in a dictionary is very much like a car in a mammoth motor show - full of potential but temporarily inactive.

Neither is a dictionary a bad book to read. There is no can't in it, no excess of explanation, and it is full of suggestion, the raw material of possible poems and histories.

I was reading the dictionary. I thought it was a poem about everything.

I had been learning Italian for years. I always loved Latin, but Italian is a living language; I'm writing in it now as well as reading it. It is so interesting delving further into language.

I have a good memory for words, and when I come upon a word I don't know, I remember it, or try to - it's almost like a tic. I also just have a good feeling for how words are made and formed in English and the etymologies that give you prefixes and suffixes.