Word Mastery Quotes

As long as a word remains unspoken, you are its master; once you utter it, you are its slave.

Man acts as though he were the shaper and master of language, while in fact language remains the master of man.

Hard words are for fools and cowards.

Read the dictionary from A to Izzard today. Get a vocabulary. Brush up on your diction. See whether wisdom is just a lot of language.

I've always had a certain facility with words.

I was a horrible student! It just sort of evolved as I started playing. I guess I became a master of it when I declared myself a wordsmith or a... word-play guy. As soon as I declared it and started that affirmation, I just became it.

The aim is never to become a master of the Word, but to be mastered by it.

Increase your word power. Words are the raw material of our craft. The greater your vocabulary the more ­effective your writing. We who write in English are fortunate to have the richest and most versatile language in the world. Respect it.

I have been a believer in the magic of language since, at a very early age, I discovered that some words got me into trouble and others got me out.

The real art is not to come up with extraordinary clever words but to make ordinary simple words do extraordinary things. To use the language that we all use and to make amazing things occur.

In this box are all the words I know… Most of them you will never need, some you will use constantly, but with them you may ask all the questions which have never been answered and answer all the questions which have never been asked. All the great books of the past and all the ones yet to come are made with these words. With them there is no obstacle you cannot overcome. All you must learn to do is use them well and in the right places.

I am simply of the opinion that you cannot be taught to write. You have to spend a lifetime in love with words.

If you are to become a writer you'll have to stop fooling with words.

What I take from writers I like is their economy - the ability to use language to very effective ends. The ability to have somebody read something and see it, or for somebody to paint an entire landscape of visual imagery with just sheets of words - that's magical.

Beware of the anger of the mouth. Master your words. Let them serve truth.

I love the exhilaration of feeling a pull quote come out of your mouth. The words just taste better.

I like to think that I know a lot of words, but I definitely don't know all of them.

Words are one of our chief means of adjusting to all the situations of life. The better control we have over words, the more successful our adjustment is likely to be.

What I like about writing is the sense of godlike power it gives you.

Poets go through a very tough apprenticeship in the use of words.

Increase your word power. Words are the raw material of our craft.

A writer is a person who cares what words mean, what they say, how they say it. Writers know words are their way towards truth and freedom, and so they use them with care, with thought, with fear, with delight. By using words well they strengthen their souls. Story-tellers and poets spend their lives learning that skill and art of using words well. And their words make the souls of their readers stronger, brighter, deeper.

You must be able to write. You must have a sense of form, of pattern, of design. You must have a respect for and a mastery over words.

Words were all he knew; they possessed and overwhelmed him, as if they were a thousand white cats with whom he shared a one-room apartment.

Study words so that you can use them significantly, effectively, worthily.