Appropriate Quotes

[BarryDavidson]

"The right way to write is to shut up and do it already."
Barry Davidson






(I couldn't resist.)

[geniuswaitress]

"A bad review may spoil your breakfast, but you shouldn't allow it to spoil your lunch." -Kingsley Amis

[misstamla]

I've really enjoyed reading the posts on here -thanks, everyone.

I have a great book called The Wit and Wisdom of Great Writers. Here are some of my favourites:

'An average English word is four letters and a half. By hard, honest labour, I've dug all the large words out of my vocabulary and shaved them down till the average is three and a half letters .....I never write metropolis for seven cents because I can get the same money for city. I never write policeman, because I can get the same money for Cop'. Mark Twain from Mark Twain's Speeches 1923.

'How come there's no other name for a thesaurus?' Wright Stevens

You know you're writing well when you're throwing good stuff in the wastebasket'. Ernest Hemingway

[Elizabeth Ann West]

Oh I LOVE that Mark Twain quote. I hope Ed saw that!

[Ed]

I'm also enjoying this thread - sorry for being a party pooper by contributing ones about errors!

Yes, EAW, Twain has some great quotes about writing. I don't know if I've ever shared this, but here's a link to Mark Twain's Rules for Writing:
http://www.maryannemohanraj.com/Writing/twain.html

"An author should

12. _Say_ what he is proposing to say, not merely come near it.
13. Use the right word, not its second cousin.
14. Eschew surplusage.
15. Not omit necessary details.
16. Avoid slovenliness of form.
17. Use good grammar.
18. Employ a simple, straightforward style. "

Still completely relevant!

[misstamla]

I'm not sure if this is the correct thread, but I've just come across this site, which all to clearly illustrates the old adage 'it's not what you say, it's how you say it! http://rinkworks.com/said/

Misstamla

[HayleyWriter]

Here's another one from Mark Twain:

"What a good thing Adam had. When he said a good thing, he knew nobody had said it before."

Hayley

[stephanie]

'How come there's no other name for a thesaurus?'

Steven Wright (brilliant comedian) also said:

If a word in the dictionary were misspelled, how would we know?
and
If you can't hear me, it's because I'm in parentheses.