Bad writing Quote by P. D. James

““Read widely and with discrimination. Bad writing is contagious." [ Ten rules for writing fiction , The Guardian, 20 February 2010 (with Diana Athill, Margaret Atwood, Roddy Doyle, Helen Dunmore, Geoff Dyer, Anne Enright, Richard Ford, Jonathan Franzen, Esther Freud, Neil Gaiman, David Hare, and AL Kennedy)]””

P. D. James

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 2.3 out of 5 (6 ratings)

More by P. D. James

What was so terrible about grief was not grief itself, but that one got over it.

P. D. James

Image

Work did bestow dignity, status, meaning. Wasn't that why people dreaded unemployment, why some men found retirement so traumatic?

P. D. James

Image

If you are proposing to commit a sin it is as well to commit it with intelligence. Otherwise you are insulting God as well…

P. D. James

Image

What the detective story is about is not murder but the restoration of order.

P. D. James

Image

It's possible to fight intolerance, stupidity and fanaticism when they come separately. When you get all three together it's probably wiser to get out,…

P. D. James

Image

Death ... obliterates family resemblance as it does personality: there is no affinity between the living and the dead.

P. D. James

Image

Publishers don't nurse you; they buy and sell you.

P. D. James

Image

No government can act in advance of the moral will of the people.

P. D. James

Image

If all power corrupts, then a doctor, who literally holds life and death in his hands, must be at particular risk.

P. D. James

Image

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

Image

In youth we take egregious risks because death has no reality for us. Youth goes caparisoned in immortality. It is only in middle age…

P. D. James

Image

It is always easy to question the judgement of others in matters of which we may be imperfectly informed.

P. D. James

Image

Explore all 83 P. D. James quotes

More Bad writing quotes

“Except in stock locutions, such as "You were paid yesterday," "The Germans were defeated," or "The project was abandoned," the passive voice is virtually…

John Gardner

Image

“There is one surefire way to produce bad writing: submit to the slavery of a deadline.”

Flavia Idà

Image

The world is a hellish place, and bad writing is destroying the quality of our suffering.

Tom Waits

Image

Jokes that are gratuitously offensive are synonymous with bad writing to me. I'm offended as a writer first and as a person second.

Rachel Bloom

Image

“A person who wrote badly did better than a person who does not write at all. A bad writing can be corrected. An empty…

Israelmore Ayivor

Image

“Heresy is usually quite sophisticated, actually has a meaning, and is to be taken very seriously. It is therefore to be carefully distinguished from…

Anonymous