--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: If I remember correctly, a writer is…" description: "\"If I remember correctly, a writer is someone who wants to convey information. Language or writing is a code\" — Clifford Geertz" image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/74e/clifford-geertz-11500_code_if-i-remember-correctly-a-writer-is-some_2466457.png" --- # If I remember correctly, a writer is someone who wants to… ![“If I remember correctly, a writer is someone who wants to convey information. Language or writing is a code” quote by Clifford Geertz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/74e/clifford-geertz-11500_code_if-i-remember-correctly-a-writer-is-some_2466457.png) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/74e/clifford-geertz-11500_code_if-i-remember-correctly-a-writer-is-some_2466457.png) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/74e/clifford-geertz-11500_code_if-i-remember-correctly-a-writer-is-some_2466457.png) > “If I remember correctly, a writer is someone who wants to convey information. Language or writing is a code” [Clifford Geertz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/clifford-geertz/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Writing translates complex ideas into a structured code, enabling shared understanding. **In simple terms:** Writing is a code for ideas. Key Takeaway Write clearly. Themes language communication structure Mood educational analytical Type explanatory inspirational When to use this quote - education - journalism - technical documentation Key Concepts semiotics information theory Questions to Reflect On - How do you simplify without losing meaning? - What makes good writing effective? A Different Perspective Complex ideas may resist simple encoding, losing nuance. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Code](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/code/) [Language](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/language/) [Programming](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/programming/) [Writer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/writer/) [Writing](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/writing/) ## Related quotes > [Many nations use language simply to convey information, but it's different in Ireland. With most conversational exchanges you get an 'added extra' like the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marian-keyes/many-nations-use-language-simply-to-convey-information-but-it-s/) [Marian Keyes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marian-keyes/) > [I found that it was easiest to convey the information in the context of the life of the scientist or in the context of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ann-druyan/i-found-that-it-was-easiest-to-convey-the-information-in-the-context/) [Ann Druyan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ann-druyan/) > [“The calls of birds and the traces left by wolves to mark off their territories are no less forms of language than the sings…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-gray/the-calls-of-birds-and-the-traces-left-by-wolves-to-mark-off-their/) [John Gray](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-gray/) > [If you make a book which is little more than putting a television script on the page, and add a few pictures, that would…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-starkey/if-you-make-a-book-which-is-little-more-than-putting-a-television/) [David Starkey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-starkey/) > [“Writers in what we now call the Middle English period (late twelfth century to 1485) did not necessarily always write in English. The language…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ronald-carter/writers-in-what-we-now-call-the-middle-english-period-late-twelfth/) [Ronald Carter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ronald-carter/) > [When you’re writing, you’re trying to find out something which you don’t know. The whole language of writing for me is finding out what…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/when-you-re-writing-you-re-trying-to-find-out-something-which-you-don-2/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [A language is the appearances of connections therefore language as in writing doesn't express anything: it creates.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kathy-acker/a-language-is-the-appearances-of-connections-therefore-language-as-in/) [Kathy Acker](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kathy-acker/) > [The only way to learn a new programming language is by writing programs in it.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dennis-ritchie/the-only-way-to-learn-a-new-programming-language-is-by-writing/) [Dennis Ritchie](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dennis-ritchie/) > [I haven't shifted language. I'm writing in English because I like it. I'm a sucker for the language, but the good old poems I'm…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joseph-brodsky/i-haven-t-shifted-language-i-m-writing-in-english-because-i-like-it-i/) [Joseph Brodsky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joseph-brodsky/) > [I think it's a greater risk not to write about 9\\11. If you're in my position - a New Yorker who felt the event…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jonathan-safran-foer/i-think-it-s-a-greater-risk-not-to-write-about-9-11-if-you-re-in-my/) [Jonathan Safran Foer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jonathan-safran-foer/) > [Every 'Observer' writer wants to be a novelist.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jared-kushner/every-observer-writer-wants-to-be-a-novelist/) [Jared Kushner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jared-kushner/) > [“If the writer wants to create suspense, or build tension, or make the reader wait and wonder, or join a journey of discovery, or…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/roy-peter-clark/if-the-writer-wants-to-create-suspense-or-build-tension-or-make-the/) [Roy Peter Clark](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/roy-peter-clark/) > [“A Book I Can Put Down I’m halfway through and I’ve gotten used to the way it wants to be read. This writer wants…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/antonia-clark/a-book-i-can-put-down-i-m-halfway-through-and-i-ve-gotten-used-to-the/) Antonia Clark > [Let the writer take up surgery or bricklaying if he is interested in technique. There is no mechanical way to get the writing done,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-faulkner/let-the-writer-take-up-surgery-or-bricklaying-if-he-is-interested-in/) [William Faulkner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-faulkner/) > [“The shoddy writer wants only publication. He fails to recognize that almost anyone willing to devote between twelve and fourteen hours a day to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-gardner/the-shoddy-writer-wants-only-publication-he-fails-to-recognize-that/) [John Gardner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-gardner/) ## More by Clifford Geertz > [My instincts are always against people who want to fasten some sort of hegemony onto things](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/clifford-geertz/my-instincts-are-always-against-people-who-want-to-fasten-some-sort/) [Clifford Geertz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/clifford-geertz/) > [One of the most significant facts about humanity may finally be that we all begin with the natural equipment to a live a thousand…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/clifford-geertz/one-of-the-most-significant-facts-about-humanity-may-finally-be-that/) [Clifford Geertz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/clifford-geertz/) > [“One of the most significant facts about us may finally be that we all begin with the natural equipment to live a thousand kinds…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/clifford-geertz/one-of-the-most-significant-facts-about-us-may-finally-be-that-we-all/) [Clifford Geertz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/clifford-geertz/) > [Understanding a people's culture exposes their normalness without reducing their particularity...It renders them accessible: setting them in the frame of their own banalities, it…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/clifford-geertz/understanding-a-people-s-culture-exposes-their-normalness-without/) [Clifford Geertz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/clifford-geertz/) > [I think what's known about neurology is still scattered and uncertain](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/clifford-geertz/i-think-what-s-known-about-neurology-is-still-scattered-and-uncertain/) [Clifford Geertz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/clifford-geertz/) > [The way in which mathematicians and physicists and historians talk is quite different, and what a physicist means by physical intuition and what a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/clifford-geertz/the-way-in-which-mathematicians-and-physicists-and-historians-talk-is/) [Clifford Geertz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/clifford-geertz/) > [It's always amusing to look at how something early in the 20th century was written in anthropology and how it's written now. There's been…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/clifford-geertz/it-s-always-amusing-to-look-at-how-something-early-in-the-20th/) [Clifford Geertz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/clifford-geertz/) > [Cultural analysis is intrinsically incomplete. And, worse than that, the more deeply it goes the less complete it is.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/clifford-geertz/cultural-analysis-is-intrinsically-incomplete-and-worse-than-that-the/) [Clifford Geertz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/clifford-geertz/) > [What we call our data are really our own constructions of other people’s constructions of what they and their compatriots are up to.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/clifford-geertz/what-we-call-our-data-are-really-our-own-constructions-of-other/) [Clifford Geertz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/clifford-geertz/) > [It may be in the cultural particularities of people — in their oddities — that some of the most instructive revelations of what it…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/clifford-geertz/it-may-be-in-the-cultural-particularities-of-people-in-their-oddities/) [Clifford Geertz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/clifford-geertz/) > [The point of literary criticism in anthropology is not to replace research, but to find out how it is that we are persuasive.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/clifford-geertz/the-point-of-literary-criticism-in-anthropology-is-not-to-replace/) [Clifford Geertz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/clifford-geertz/) > [“What the ethnographer is in fact faced with—except when (as, of course, he must do) he is pursuing the more automatized routines of data…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/clifford-geertz/what-the-ethnographer-is-in-fact-faced-with-except-when-as-of-course/) [Clifford Geertz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/clifford-geertz/) > [ \[Culture\] denotes an historically transmitted pattern of meanings embodied in symbols, a system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic forms, by means of which… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/clifford-geertz/culture-denotes-an-historically-transmitted-pattern-of-meanings/) [Clifford Geertz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/clifford-geertz/) > [Most anthropologists are doing straightforward ethnography, and should](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/clifford-geertz/most-anthropologists-are-doing-straightforward-ethnography-and-should/) [Clifford Geertz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/clifford-geertz/) > [Learning to exist in a world quite different from that which formed you is the condition, these days, of pursuing research you can on…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/clifford-geertz/learning-to-exist-in-a-world-quite-different-from-that-which-formed/) [Clifford Geertz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/clifford-geertz/) [Explore all 58 Clifford Geertz quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/clifford-geertz/) ## More Code quotes > [At the deepest level, all living things that have ever been looked at have the same DNA code. And many of the same genes.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richard-dawkins/at-the-deepest-level-all-living-things-that-have-ever-been-looked-at/) [Richard Dawkins](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richard-dawkins/) > [It is no secret that I have read 'The Da Vinci Code' several times. I genuinely believe that 'The Da Vinci Code' and 'Angels…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ashwin-sanghi/it-is-no-secret-that-i-have-read-the-da-vinci-code-several-times-i/) [Ashwin Sanghi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ashwin-sanghi/) > [Programmers are always surrounded by complexity; we cannot avoid it… If our basic tool, the language in which we design and code our programs,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tony-hoare/programmers-are-always-surrounded-by-complexity-we-cannot-avoid-it-if/) [Tony Hoare](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tony-hoare/) > [One of my most productive days was throwing away 1,000 lines of code.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ken-thompson/one-of-my-most-productive-days-was-throwing-away-1-000-lines-of-code/) [Ken Thompson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ken-thompson/) > [Writing code means always having to say you're sorry.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-ford/writing-code-means-always-having-to-say-you-re-sorry/) [Paul Ford](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-ford/) > [It would be a piece of ingenuousness to accuse the man of today of his lack of moral code. The accusation would leave him…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jose-ortega-y-gasset/it-would-be-a-piece-of-ingenuousness-to-accuse-the-man-of-today-of/) [Jose Ortega y Gasset](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jose-ortega-y-gasset/) > [I loved 'Chicago Code;' I watched that a lot. It was great because it really captured the city - I'm from Chicago, too.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jessy-schram/i-loved-chicago-code-i-watched-that-a-lot-it-was-great-because-it/) [Jessy Schram](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jessy-schram/) > [I kind of pride myself on coming onto things that are well-oiled machines and finding a way to bring what I bring and fit…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rob-lowe/i-kind-of-pride-myself-on-coming-onto-things-that-are-well-oiled/) [Rob Lowe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rob-lowe/) > [When we're done simplifying the tax code, getting the lobbyist carve outs our of the tax code, lowering our rates and letting people have…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-ryan/when-we-re-done-simplifying-the-tax-code-getting-the-lobbyist-carve/) [Paul Ryan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-ryan/) > [The tax code is 10 times the size of the Bible with none of the good news.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-ryan/the-tax-code-is-10-times-the-size-of-the-bible-with-none-of-the-good/) [Paul Ryan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-ryan/) > [The Cheney team had, for example, technological supremacy over the National Security Council staff. That is to say, they could read their e-mails. I…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lawrence-wilkerson/the-cheney-team-had-for-example-technological-supremacy-over-the/) [Lawrence Wilkerson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lawrence-wilkerson/) > [ \[T\]he tax code has been piling up, year after year, a symbol of everything gone wrong in America, of arrogant rulers and lost freedom,… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dick-armey/t-he-tax-code-has-been-piling-up-year-after-year-a-symbol-of/) [Dick Armey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dick-armey/) > [In open source, you really have to be near the watershed to have an impact on the source code. Customers want to be near…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/peter-fenton/in-open-source-you-really-have-to-be-near-the-watershed-to-have-an/) [Peter Fenton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/peter-fenton/) > [We can use our art to become political, to become something you want to talk about. 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