John Cooper Clarke Quotes

My mother tongue, Mende, is very expressive, very figurative, and when I write, I always struggle to find the English equivalent of things that I really want to say in Mende. For example, in Mende, you wouldn't say 'night came suddenly'; you would say 'the sky rolled over and changed its sides.'

Swear you'd rather die than use 'literally' as an intensifier.

I'm well-read as far as literary fiction, but I wanted to make better decisions about my writing, to use words or phrases more confidently by learning how your words can be interpreted, the shades of meaning, the different connotations.

Words can be meaningless. If they are used in such a way that no sharp conclusions can be drawn.

The thing about words is that meanings can twist just like a snake, and if you want to find snakes look for them behind words that have changed their meaning.

A writer lives in awe of words, for they can be cruel or kind, and they can change their meanings right in front of you. They pick up flavors and odors like butter in a refrigerator.

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

Words repeated again have as another sound, so another sense.

There are words and words and none mean anything. And then one sentence means everything.

The adjective is the banana peel of the parts of speech.

The fact is that much misunderstanding is often caused by our modern attempts to limit too strictly the meaning of a Greek word.

Language is the ticket to plot and character, after all, because both are built out of language.

Metaphors, similes, puns - all manner of metonymy - I'm interested in language that cannot be parsed by a machine - language that can only be understood through acculturation.

I used to go through the dictionary looking for unusual but nontechnical words. At one time, I thought the greatest word was 'jejune' and I would throw it into every piece because something about it appealed to me.

It depends on what the meaning of “is” is.

The exact meaning of irony is so narrow that the word is hardly worth using; in its broad, current definition, it's a euphemism for sarcasm. 'I'm not being sarcastic; I'm being ironic.' No, you're not. You're evading the responsibility for being sarcastic.

Bierce radiates brilliancy, and perhaps no other man of letters ever had a more ready command of condensed expression. For him, each word has its unique place in the peerage of words, and he would not use a word out of place any sooner than he would thrust an ape into a captain's saddle.

I enjoy finding the right word and giving each its full measure, its full space in a sentence.

When I use the word 'buzz' in successive sentences, it's clearly time for me to stop writing.

When the public doesn't understand me, it's a battle. So when I choose words, I choose them for their musicality, rhythm, and sense, and I choose the right dialect to express that.

Even if that were true, it wouldn't be irony," Lucas pointed out. "Irony is the contrast between what's said and what happens.

One cannot be too careful with words, they change their minds just as people do.

Never call a stomach a tummy without good reason.

I'm very concerned with questions of language. This is what I think of when I think of myself as a writer: I'm someone who writes sentences and paragraphs. I think of the sentence - not only what it shares but, in a sense, what it looks like. I like to match words not only in a way that convey a meaning, possibly an indirect meaning, but even at times words that have a kind of visual correspondence.

When you say words a lot they don't mean anything. Or maybe they don't mean anything anyway, and we just think they do.