Refined Writing Quotes

[N]othing about a book is so unmistakable and so irreplaceable as the stamp of the cultured mind. I don't care what the story is about or what may be the momentary craze for books that appear to have been hammered out by the village blacksmith in a state of intoxication; the minute you get the easy touch of the real craftsman with centuries of civilisation behind him, you get literature.

The most important lesson in the writing trade is that any manuscript is improved if you cut away the fat.

I was too prissy, too refined, too abstemious, too French to be a good American writer.

A temperate style is alone classical.

Use declarative sentences… Use an elevated tone… Use graceful language

Few writers push the reader away with the coolness, dignity, and faint melancholy of Fleur Jaeggy.

The kind of stuff I usually read is a bit more on the literary side, like books that I think are influential in the sense that they're doing pulpy subject matter in a refined way. Like 'The Road' by Cormac McCarthy; I loved that book.

I admire Eudora Welty. 'Delta Wedding' is a book I've given as a present to numerous women. Eudora Welty rocks. She writes such jewel-like, fine, refined short stories.

Writing, madam, is a mechanic part of wit. A gentleman should never go beyond a song or a billet.

Sometimes I wish I was poetic and subtle. I write very bold and blunt and tell it like it is.

Intense study of the Bible will keep any writer from being vulgar, in point of style.