On Words and Writing: A Few Quotations

Words constitute the ultimate texture and stuff of our moral being, since they are the most refined and delicate and detailed, as well as the most universally used and understood, of the symbolisms whereby we express ourselves into existence.—Iris Murdoch

Good prose is like a windowpane.—George Orwell (1903-1950)

You don't write because you want to say something, you write because you have something to say.—F. Scott Fitzgerald

One must be drenched in words, literally soaked in them, to have the right ones form themselves into the proper patterns at the right moment.—Hart Crane, poet (1899-1932)

By words the mind is winged.—Aristophanes

Words are miraculous things. They describe, captivate, provoke, vivify, encompass, pervade, inspire, preserve, and comfort. So much more than that, in fact, so as to leave me at a loss of . . . words.—Whitaker

Words, as is well known, are the great foes of reality.—Joseph Conrad

The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in, shock-proof, shit detector.—Ernest Hemingway

All first drafts are shit.—Ernest Hemingway (contribution of Peter Mc [peter@the beagleproject.com]