William Safire Quotes About Writing

Quotes about: Writing

• If you want to "get in touch with your feelings," fine, talk to yourself. We all do. But if you want to communicate with another thinking human being, get in touch with your thoughts. Put them in order, give them a purpose, use them to persuade, to instruct, to discover, to seduce. The secret way to do this is to write it down, and then cut out the confusing parts.

  William Safire

  Writing, Cutting, Thinking

• Why use a modifier to set straight a not-quite-right noun when the right noun is available?

  William Safire

  Writing, Use, Nouns

  "On Language; When Putsch Comes to Coup" by William Safire, www.nytimes.com. September 22, 1991.

• It behooves us to avoid archaisms. Never use a long word when a diminutive one will do.

  William Safire

  Writing, Long, Use

• By elevating your reading, you will improve your writing or at least tickle your thinking.

  William Safire

  Reading, Writing, Thinking

• Cast aside any column about two subjects. It means the pundit chickened out on the hard decision about what to write about that day.

  William Safire

  Writing, Mean, Two

  "How to Read a Column" by William Safire, www.nytimes.com. January 24, 2005.

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