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I haven't any right to criticize books, and I don't do it except when I hate them. I often want to criticize Jane Austen, but her books madden me so t...more

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This explains why, whenever a person says sie to me, I generally try to kill him, if a stranger.

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To get the right word in the right place is a rare achievement. To condense the diffused light of a page of thought into the luminous flash of a singl...more

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I notice that you use plain, simple language, short words and brief sentences. That is the way to write English―it is the modern way and the best way....more

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The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug.

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I conceive that the right way to write a story for boys is to write so that it will not only interest boys but strongly interest any man who has ever ...more

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One should never use exclamation points in writing. It is like laughing at your own joke.

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The test of any good fiction is that you should care something for the characters; the good to succeed, the bad to fail. The trouble with most fiction...more

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Wit is the sudden marriage of ideas which before their union were not perceived to have any relation.

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A dog is der Hund the dog; a women is die Frau the wom[an]; a horse is das Pferd, the horse; now you put that dog in the Genitive case, & is he the sa...more

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A successful book is not made of what is in it, but what is left out of it.

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The face of the water, in time, became a wonderful book- a book that was a dead language to the uneducated passenger, but which told its mind to me wi...more

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Don't say the old lady screamed. Bring her on and let her scream.

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Perfect grammar--persistent, continuous, sustained--is the fourth dimension, so to speak: many have sought it, but none has found it.

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Use what you stand for and what you oppose as a foundation to write great content that resonates with readers and creates a ripple effect.