219 Sentence Quotes for You to Enjoy

As writers we must, from our very opening sentence, speak with authority to our readers. Michael Cunningham

Speak Our Must Writers Opening Readers Very Authority Sentence

I revise constantly, as I go along and then again after I've finished a first draft. Few of my novels contain a single sentence that closely resembles the sentence I first set down. I just find that I have to keep zapping and zapping the English language until it starts to behave in some way that vaguely matches my intentions. Michael Cunningham

Language Finished First Single Few Down Starts Way Find Constantly Some Contain Along Until Matches Go Revise Behave Closely Just Intentions After Again Sentence Then English English Language Resembles Novels Keep Draft Set Vaguely

In my writing, I try to combine all my favorite elements of journalism - accuracy, real characters that exist on this planet - with all my favorite elements of literature: a sense of flow, of propulsion, of wanting to read every sentence. Michael Finkel

Writing Try Sense Every Favorite Characters Journalism Combine Read Real Real Characters Exist Accuracy Wanting Literature Sentence Planet Elements Flow

When writing for a mass audience, put a fact in every sentence. Michael Hastings

Writing Every Fact Put Mass Mass Audience Audience Sentence

By the second sentence of a pitch, the entirety of the story should be explained. Michael Hastings

Entirety Pitch Story Explained Sentence Should Second

Everybody appears to look down on Bieber. No person able to write a grammatical sentence about Justin Bieber actually thinks him worthy of the sentence. Michael Wolff

Down Everybody Worthy Able About Write Look Him Person Grammatical Justin Justin Bieber Sentence Appears Actually Thinks

Prosecutors frequently overcharge, load up charges on individual defendants, knowing that three strikes laws and harsh mandatory minimum sentences will force people to plea bargain and essentially convict themselves because they're terrified of doing a life sentence for a relatively minor crime. Michelle Alexander

Life People Crime Will Three Mandatory Plea Relatively Strikes Harsh Minimum Charges Minor Laws Individual Prosecutors Knowing Force Terrified Because Frequently Doing Up Essentially Sentence Sentences Convict Themselves Bargain Load

Turing was uncompromisingly honest. As soon as he didn't think you were interesting or smart, he'd just turn around and walk away, even if you were in the middle of a sentence. Morten Tyldum

You Smart Walk Think He Soon Around Were Just Middle Interesting Sentence Turn Even Away Honest

If you are moneyed or educated, you will get a different sentence than someone who is not. Nancy Grace

You Will Someone Educated Than Get Different Sentence Who

Before the scene, before the paragraph, even before the sentence, comes the word. Individual words and phrases are the building blocks of fiction, the genes that generate everything else. Use the right words, and your fiction can blossom. The French have a phrase for it - le mot juste - the exact right word in the exact right position. Nancy Kress

Words Word Building Before Else Everything Everything Else Right Word Right Words Paragraph Exact Phrase Phrases Scene Individual Generate Genes French Building Blocks Blocks Blossom Fiction Sentence Use Your Even Right Position

Words that add no new information or aren't repeated for emphasis are just padding. A sentence may carry three or five or eight of them, each one as unnoticeable as an extra two ounces on your hips but collectively adding up to a large burden of fat. Nancy Kress

Words Burden Three Extra Add Adding Carry Collectively Emphasis New New Information Hips Repeated Up Five May Just Eight Information Them Sentence Your Large Each Each One Fat Two

Writing can't be too calculated. My best writing is when I set it aside, move on. It's not when I'm crafting a sentence, thinking about what word should follow another. Nathaniel Philbrick

Best Writing Word Move On Thinking Too Follow About Calculated Another Crafting Move Sentence Aside Should Set

My daughter's first sentence was, 'Dada no hair.' And I was, like, 'No Jasmine, Dada does have hair, Dada just shaves his head.' Nigel Barker

Daughter Hair First Head Like Does His Just Sentence Jasmine

Mick Jagger has produced some great films and brought us stories about the music industry that have changed the way we think about how music is made. I never thought I would actually call him my boss, let alone meet Mick Jagger or have any reason to say my name in the same sentence as his. Olivia Wilde

Music Alone Great Thought Made Think Films Changed Meet Music Industry Way Say Would Some Brought About Boss Never Name Call Him Industry How His Mick Jagger Same Any Jagger Stories Sentence Us Produced Reason Actually

Then about 1951 I began writing again, painfully, a novel I called in the beginning A Life Sentence on Earth, but which developed into The Tree of Man. Patrick White

Life Man Writing Beginning Tree Earth About Developed Began In The Beginning Which Again Sentence Then Painfully Novel

The moment that I realized my name was going to be said in the same sentence as children and sex, that's really intense. That's something I knew from that very moment, whatever happens past that point, something's out there in the air that is really bad. Paul Reubens

A British actor will savour every syllable of a Shakespearean line, while a French actor will drive to the end of a sentence or a speech with a propulsive rhythm: the thing you never say to a French actor is, 'Take your time.' Peter Brook

Try this experiment: Pick a famous movie - 'Casablanca,' say - and summarize the plot in one sentence. Is that plot you just described the thing you remember most about it? Doubtful. Narrative is a necessary cement, but it disappears from memory. Peter Greenaway

The real difference between literature and pulp is the kind of emotional responses they elicit. Dan Brown can't pierce your heart. Patricia Cornwell can't make you read a sentence twice and then look sightlessly out of the window. Peter Temple

You Heart Dan Out Responses Kind Window Brown Emotional Between Look Pierce Make Read Real Real Difference Difference Literature Sentence Then Your Twice Elicit Pulp

I have to often read the same sentence over and over before I understand it. And I have to convince myself that what I'm reading is so enjoyable and so exciting and so good for me that it's worth the effort. Philip Schultz

Myself Good Me Worth Reading Before Exciting Over Read Understand Effort Same Often Sentence Convince Enjoyable

With my fiction, I focused on chapters and overall conceptions, while in poetry, I crawled along in the trenches of each sentence, examining every word for a sign of a deeper significance. Philip Schultz

Word Every Trenches Chapters Sign Focused Significance Examining Poetry Along Overall Fiction While Sentence Each Deeper

While driving to work, I'll choose to think about a particular subject rather than just have random thought streams landing on one subject or another. For example, I might think about the structure of an opinion. Or I might think about the first sentence of an opinion, refining it. Raymond Kethledge

Work Random Thought Example First Think About Rather Structure Driving Particular For Example Another Opinion Subject Refining Than Just While Sentence Might Landing Choose Streams

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