Books Quote by Cyril Connolly

The exchange of words is a lot like a virtual handshake. Is the writer's grasp of the language strong and bold? Are the words…

— Allison Mackie

A fluent writer always seems more talented than he is. To write well, one needs a natural felicity and an acquired difficulty.

— Joseph Joubert

At the beginning of their careers many writers have a need to overwrite. They choose carefully turned-out phrases; they want to impress their readers…

— Jorge Luis Borges

“one sign of a writer’s potential is his especially sharp ear—and eye—for language.”

— John Gardner

“As a writer, one spends a lifetime journeying into the heart of language, trying to minimize, if not eliminate, the distance between language and…

— Arundhati Roy

Language is properly the servant of thought, but not unfrequently becomes its master. The conceptions of a feeble writer are greatly modified by his…

— William Benton Clulow

“A writer's style should be direct and personal, his imagery rich and earthy, and his words simple and vigorous. The greatest writers have the…

— Ernest Hemingway

Every man speaks and writes with intent to be understood; and it can seldom happen but he that understands himself, might convey his notions…

— Samuel Johnson

There's a whole language out there, and one's role as a writer is to stumble around in it.

— Ciaran Carson

The thing a writer has to avoid is being the 'voice' of his people and pretending he can speak for them.

— Derek Walcott

The language must be careful and must appear effortless. It must not sweat. It must suggest and be provocative at the same time.

— Toni Morrison

Elegance of language may not be in the power of all of us; but simplicity and straight forwardness are. Write much as you would…

— William P. Alford