Books Quote by John Irving

It should come as no surprise that writers take an interest in punctuation. I have been told that the dying words of one famous…

— Lynne Truss

“Do not use semicolons. They are transvestite hermaphrodites, representing nothing. All they do is show you've been to college.”

— Kurt Vonnegut

“Academics love the semicolon; their hankering after logic demands a division which is more emphatic than a comma, but not quite as absolute a…

— Victor Klemperer

“My advice to writers just starting out? Don't use semi-colons! They are transvestite hermaphrodites, representing exactly nothing. All they do is suggest you might…

— Kurt Vonnegut Jr

“I have been told that the dying words of one famous 20th-century writer were, “I should have used fewer semicolons” – and although I…

— Lynne Truss

You practically do not use semicolons at all. This is a symptom of mental defectiveness, probably induced by camp life.

— George Bernard Shaw

“What the semicolon’s anxious supporters fret about is the tendency of contemporary writers to use a dash instead of a semicolon and thus precipitate…

— Lynne Truss

Here is a lesson in creative writing. First rule: Do not use semicolons. They are transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing. All they do is…

— Kurt Vonnegut

“Here is a lesson in creative writing. First rule: Do not use semicolons. They are transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing. All they do is…

— Kurt Vonnegut

With educated people, I suppose, punctuation is a matter of rule; with me it is a matter of feeling. But I must say I…

— Abraham Lincoln

“We might also want to use a semicolon to hold together two sentences to avoid giving the reader too much time to think about…

— Jenny Baranick

How hideous is the semicolon.

— Samuel Beckett