Add Quote by Diane Wakoski

Prose is when all the lines except the last go on to the end. Poetry is when some of them fall short of it.

— Jeremy Bentham

Prose is something that is persistent in staying in one place long enough to not only zero in on the dramatic effect of something…

— Tracy K. Smith

“[The] defining characteristics of good prose [are]: a preference for short sentences diversified by an occasionally very long one; a tone that is relaxed…

— F.W. Bateson

Good prose almost always requires both showing and telling, scenes and summary, the two basic components of creative prose.

— Laurie Alberts

Prose-it might be speculated-is discourse; poetry ellipsis. Prose is spoken aloud; poetry overheard.

— Joyce Carol Oates

In prose, if you forget a line, you can say something else in the same context.

— Puneet Issar

Prose is prose because of what it includes; poetry is poetry because of what it leaves out.

— Marvin Bell

Prose should have a flow, the forward momentum of a certain energized weight; it should feel like a voice tumbling in your ear.

— John Updike

Prose is not necessarily good because it obeys the rules of syntax, but it is fairly certain to be bad if it ignores them.

— Wilson Follett

I think in reading a few sentences of text you can just tell the tone, and that's something I love in prose writers.

— Lauren Mayberry

The line is a way of framing poetry. All verse is measured by lines. The poetic line immediately announces its difference from everyday speech…

— Edward Hirsch

Prose is all about embellishing and describing.

— Mike Birbiglia