167 Prose Quotes for You to Enjoy

To design is much more than simply to assemble, to order, or even to edit: it is to add value and meaning, to illuminate, to simplify, to clarify, to modify, to dignify, to dramatize, to persuade, and perhaps even to amuse. To design is to transform prose into poetry. Paul Rand

Always be a poet, even in prose. Charles Baudelaire

Poet Poetry Prose Always Even

Yet, it is true, poetry is delicious; the best prose is that which is most full of poetry. Virginia Woolf

Best Poetry Delicious Prose True Most Which Full

I was probably 21 or 22 years old when I realized the prose that I live by, which is, 'You get what you give.' The more good deeds that you could do in your life, the more fulfilling and enriched your life is going to be. I truly believe that. Zac Brown

It was an instinct to put the world in order that powered her mending split infinitives and snipping off dangling participles, smoothing away the knots and bumps until the prose before her took on a sheen, like perfect caramel. David Leavitt

World Before Took Mending Perfect Split Put Prose Powered Instinct Like Knots Until Sheen Off Bumps Order Away Her

Without touching my subject I want to come to the moment when, through pure concentration of seeing, the composed picture becomes more made than taken. Without a descriptive caption to justify its existence, it will speak for itself - less descriptive, more creative; less informative, more suggestive - less prose, more poetry. Ernst Haas

Creative Speak Will Made Pure Picture Composed Seeing Touching More Poetry Through Taken Prose Come Concentration Without Becomes Subject Existence Itself Than Want Informative Justify Less Moment Caption Descriptive Suggestive

That's what you're looking for as a writer when you're working. You're looking for your own freedom. To lose your inhibition to delve deep into your memory and experiences and life and then to find the prose that will persuade the reader. Philip Roth

Life Freedom You Memory Will Looking Lose Own Find Writer Prose Reader Experiences Then Persuade Working Your Inhibition Deep

The poet gives us his essence, but prose takes the mold of the body and mind. Virginia Woolf

Mind Poet Gives Prose Takes His Essence Us Body Mold

In all my work, in the movies I write, the lyrics, the poetry, the prose, the essays, I am saying that we may encounter many defeats - maybe it's imperative that we encounter the defeats - but we are much stronger than we appear to be and maybe much better than we allow ourselves to be. Human beings are more alike than unalike. Maya Angelou

Work Saying I Am Better Stronger Lyrics Alike Ourselves All My Work I Write More Poetry Imperative Write Allow Prose Am Encounter Than Essays May Human Maybe Human Beings Movies Much Many Appear Beings Defeats

I always like to break out and address the audience. In 'The History Boys', for instance, without any ado, the boys will suddenly turn and talk to the audience and then go back into the action. I find it more adventurous doing it in prose than on the stage, but I like being able to make the reader suddenly sit up. Alan Bennett

History Will Sit Stage Action Back Address Out Find Able Ado More Instance Prose Adventurous Like Talk Make Reader Without Audience Boy Always Doing Go Up Than Any Being Break Turn Then Suddenly

I've got to hear the rhythm of the sentences; I want the music of the prose. I want to see ordinary things transformed not by the circumstances in which I see them but by the language with which they're described. That's what I love when I read. Alice McDermott

Love Music Language Circumstances See Prose Read Got Hear Want Ordinary Which Rhythm Transformed Ordinary Things Them Sentences Things

Don't all writers have a hidden nerve, call it a secret chamber, something irreducibly theirs, which stirs their prose and makes it tick and turn this way or that, and identifies them, like a signature, though it lurks far deeper than their style, or their voice or other telltale antics? Andre Aciman

Style Other Secret Way Hidden Though Signature All Writers Nerve Something Voice Writers Prose Like Tick Call Makes Than Which Them Turn Far Deeper Chamber Lurks

Television is much more collaborative in many ways than prose. Ann Cleeves

Collaborative Ways Television More Prose Than Much Many

I stopped by Politics & Prose to sign a few copies of 'Constellation.' A couple days later, I learned that Barack Obama also stopped by and left with one of them. Anthony Marra

Politics Few Later Sign Obama Prose Days Couple Also Learned Left Stopped Barack Barack Obama Them Copies

Will you tell me, 'Oh, painting is a special art, whereas anyone can write prose passably well'? Can he, indeed? ... Can you, sir? Nay, believe me, you are either an archangel or a very bourgeois gentleman indeed if you admit to having spoken English prose all your life without knowing it. Arthur Quiller-Couch

Life Art Me You Will Gentleman Painting Believe Indeed Tell All Your Life Admit Having Write He Prose Spoken Bourgeois Knowing Well Without Very Sir Oh Whereas Anyone Either Your Special English Nay

Maybe it is something to do with age, but I have become fonder of poetry than of prose. Aung San Suu Kyi

Age Become Something Fonder Poetry Prose Than Maybe

I used to think that most published writers, the ones I admired, had a muse, or a special connection to the universe, to nature, or to aliens - something inaccessible to me that caused their prose to flow onto the page, already perfect. Ayobami Adebayo

I've seen plays that are, objectively, total messes that move me in ways that their tidier brethren do not. That's the romantic mystery of great theater. Translating this ineffability into printable prose is a challenge that can never be fully met. Ben Brantley

Great Me Challenge Seen Met Ways Total Objectively Mystery Never Prose Messes Move Romantic Theater Translating Brethren Fully Plays

I was born left-handed, but I was made to use my other hand. When I was writing 'Famished Road,' which was very long, I got repetitive stress syndrome. My right wrist collapsed, so I started using my left hand. The prose I wrote with my left hand came out denser, so later on I had to change it. Ben Okri

Change Writing Stress Made Long Other Syndrome Later Collapsed Out Born Wrist Had Road Prose Wrote Got Came Hand Left Left-Handed Repetitive Very Which Use Using Right Started

Marriage - a book of which the first chapter is written in poetry and the remaining chapters in prose. Beverley Nichols

Marriage Book Chapter First Chapters Poetry Remaining Written Prose Which

Prose is like this big block - you write big paragraphs. I feel that when I'm reading and writing, that a prose book is kind of monolithic. But a song is more like a feather or something. Bill Callahan

You Book Song Writing Big Reading Kind Paragraphs Something Feather More Write Prose Feel Like Block

I consider myself a writer who writes about American expatriates. And if I have any overt cause as a writer besides writing the best prose I can, it's to try to make Americans have a more visceral feeling about how America impacts everybody in the world. Bob Shacochis

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