You say the sentence or you write the sentence again and again until the tuning fork is still.
– Martin Amis
Tag: sentence
Quotable 483
The hard part of writing isn’t the writing; it’s the thinking. You can solve most of your writing problems if you stop after every sentence and ask: What does the reader need to know next?
– William Zinsser
Quotable 357
Slowly, slowly, I accumulate sentences. I have no idea what I’m doing until suddenly it reveals itself, almost done.
– Sarah Manguso
Quotable 208
I am drawn to any story that makes me want to read from one sentence to the next. I have no other criterion.
– Jhumpa Lahiri
Quotable 207
Nothing is more satisfying than to write a good sentence. It is no fun to write lumpishly, dully, in prose the reader must plod through like wet sand. But it is a pleasure to achieve, if one can, a clear running prose that is simple yet full of surprises. This does not just happen. It requires skill, hard work, a good ear, and continued practice.
– Barbara W. Tuchman
Quotable 200
Read great sentences until you can tell when one isn’t. Read great paragraphs until their rhythms get stuck in your head.
– Lily Rothman
Quotable 164
I get a sentence, an idea, an image, and I start. I don’t know anything beyond it. I follow it.
– David Rabe
Quotable 154
A short story must have a single mood and every sentence must build towards it.
– Edgar Allan Poe