Effective Language Quotes

As a writer, you're always trying to say the best thing. You're always thinking about what's the best thing to say, and what's the hardest way to say it, and what's the best line? Sometimes the best line is the simplest line. Sometimes the best line is the line that evokes more feeling than actual wordsmithing.

The magic of words is that they have power to do more than convey meaning; not only do they have the power to make things clear, they make things happen.

I can feel the power of the words doing the work. Must trust language more.

The best word shakers were the ones who understood the true power of words. They were the ones who could climb the highest.

Nor use too swelling, or ill-sounded words . . . .

I use language to pierce the brain. If I spoke like everybody else spoke, it would just dull everything.

If one were to say but few words, though ones with meaning, one would do better than to say many that were only empty sounds, and just as easy to utter as they were of little use.

People want to be inspired. They want to aspire to something. ... You can have the best product, the best service, the best argument in a debate. But without the effective words you still lose. In the end you need good principles and good language if you are to succeed.

The real art is not to come up with extraordinary clever words but to make ordinary simple words do extraordinary things. To use the language that we all use and to make amazing things occur.

I have learnt to appreciate the clarity of English language.

When you catch an adjective, kill it. No, I don't mean utterly, but kill most of them--then the rest will be valuable. They weaken when they are close together. They give strength when they are far apart.

What I take from writers I like is their economy - the ability to use language to very effective ends.

What I take from writers I like is their economy - the ability to use language to very effective ends. The ability to have somebody read something and see it, or for somebody to paint an entire landscape of visual imagery with just sheets of words - that's magical.

The language that we use now impacts on the ability to vote, it impacts on the marketplace; instead of making things clear, it makes it more confusing. I think we need to stop using neutral language and speak in straighter terms. So when you agree to something, you actually get what you agreed to in the first place.

It must be powerful language if you canna make oout what the heel it’s goin’ on aboot!

When I speak, the things that I'll say will mean something. And if it's not going to mean anything, I won't say it.

In the commerce of language use only coin of gold and silver.

People write or speak sentences in order to produce an effect, and the success of a sentence is measured by the degree to which the desired effect has been achieved.

This is the gift all writers seek-to write language that incandesces yet does not melt.

Words, too, have genuine substance -- mass and weight and specific gravity.

If words are doing their job, then their novelty will not be the most noticeable thing about them.

Felicity, not fluency of language, is a merit.

A powerful agent is the right word: it lights the reader's way and makes it plain.

Whenever we come upon one of those intensely right words in a book or a newspaper the resulting effect is physical as well as spiritual, and electrically prompt.