Prose Quotes

473 Prose quotes by 367 unique authors

A prose that is altogether alive demands something of the reader that the ordinary novel reader is not prepared to give. — Thomas Stearns Eliot
A good sentence in prose should be like a good line in poetry, unchangeable, as rhythmic, as sonorous. — Gustave Flaubert
That prose is a verse, and verse is a prose; convincing all, by demonstrating plain – poetic souls delight in prose insane — Lord Byron
(...) the translator of prose is the slave of the author and the translator of poetry is his rival. — AndreÃ¯ Makine
Poetry is prose in slow motion. — Nicholson Baker
I'm sorry I'm young," Deborah answered with a bitterness that was half prose. "We have a right to be as crazy as anyone else." The… — Joanne Greenberg
As I glanced at the phraseology of the research report, dull and unfathomable to outsiders like me, I thought that if you have the ambition… — Jon Ronson
For me a page of good prose is where one hears the rain. A page of good prose is when one hears the noise of… — John Cheever
The academic bias against subjectivity not only forces our students to write poorly ("It is believed...," instead of, "I believe..."), it deforms their thinking about… — Parker J. Palmer
Being incomprehensible offers unparalleled protection against having nothing to say...but writing with simplicity requires courage, for there is a danger that one will be overlooked,… — Alain de Botton
You know that sickening feeling of inadequacy and over-exposure you feel when you look upon your own empurpled prose? Relax into the awareness that this… — Will Self
How well I know what I mean to do When the long dark Autumn evenings come, And where, my soul, is thy pleasant hue? With… — Robert Browning
No subject is terrible if the story is true, if the prose is clean and honest, and if it affirms courage and grace under pressure. — Ernest Hemingway
I wish to God,” said Gideon with mild exasperation, “that you’d talk—just once—in prose like other people. — Dorothy Dunnett
neither poems nor prose just a length of rope just the wet earth -- that's the way home. neither vodka nor bread just bursts of… — Tadeusz Borowski
Music, when combined with a pleasurable idea, is poetry; music, without the idea, is simply music; the idea, without the music, is prose, from its… — Edgar Allan Poe
When writers make us shake our heads with the exactness of their prose and their truths, and even make us laugh about ourselves or life,… — Anne Lamott
He turns and walks away, moving so quickly that the candle flames shiver with the motion of the air. “I miss you,” Isobel says as… — Erin Morgenstern
We must never underestimate our power to be wrong when talking about God, when thinking about God, when imagining God, whether in prose or in… — Brian D. McLaren
Hundreds of butterflies flitted in and out of sight like short-lived punctuation marks in a stream of consciousness without beginning or end. — Haruki Murakami
I now wish that I had spent somewhat more of my life with verse. This is not because I fear having missed out on truths… — Richard Rorty
Behind the perfection of a man's style, must lie the passion of a man's soul. — Oscar Wilde
And now more than anything I want beautiful prose. I relish it more and more exquisitely. — Virginia Woolf
Please bury me in the library With a dozen long-stemmed proses — J. Patrick Lewis
When I write after dark", observed Cyril Connolly, "the shades of evening scatter their purple through my prose — Anne Fadiman

Who Wrote These Prose Quotes

367 authors contributed a total of 473 Prose Quotes, led by these top contributors: