Books Quote by Ngaio Marsh

When I am writing a novel I try not to read great prose stylists into which I will fall.

— Frederick Busch

read widely, not in order to copy someone else's style, but to learn to appreciate and recognize good writing and to see how the…

— P. D. James

I don't really think of myself so much as a writer as a stylist, someone who came into writing from the back door and…

— Lindsey Buckingham

If you want to write good copy, you must be where the things are.

— Anonymous

I am not a great prose stylist. I'm a storyteller. There are thousands of people who don't like what I do. Fortunately, there are…

— James Patterson

In modern novels, there is no one I want to copy. My style 'is a poor thing, but it is my own.'

— Jane Gardam

Writing is a difficult trade which must be learned slowly by reading great authors; by trying at the outset to imitate them; by daring…

— Andre Maurois

“We have our responsibilities as readers and even our importance. The standards we raise and the judgments we pass steal in the air and…

— Virginia Woolf

“The reason to copy your heroes and their style is so that you might somehow get a glimpse into their minds. That's what you…

— Austin Kleon

Never try to copy other writers, and never try to have a formula. It has to come from your heart and soul.

— Elizabeth Berg

“Stylish scholars, my colleagues told me, express complex ideas clearly and precisely; produce elegant, carefully crafted sentences; convey a sense of energy, intellectual commitment,…

— Helen Sword

“Good writing is like music. It has its distinctive rhythm, its pace, flow, cadence. It can be hummed. The great stylists seem to have…

— Leonard Ray Teel