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.
Words are magical in the way they affect the minds of those who use them.
Words are seductive and dangerous material, to be used with caution.
The old idea that words possess magical powers is false; but its falsity is the distortion of a very important truth. Words do have a magical effect - but not in the way that magicians supposed, and not on the objects they were trying to influence. Words are magical in the way they affect the minds of those who use them.
If language did not affect behavior, it could have no meaning.
Although words exist for the most part for the transmission of ideas, there are some which produce such violent disturbance in our feelings that the role they play in the transmission of ideas is lost in the background.
One must be careful with words. Words turn probabilities into facts and by sheer force of definition translate tendencies into habits.
I am influenced by words and the chewiness of language
Of all the weapons in the Federal Reserve arsenal, words were the the most unpredictable in their consequences.
Names generate meaning in a short amount of space — they provoke thoughts, questions. That's something I like doing. Of course, you have to be careful. Sometimes it can alienate the reader, it can be another level of mediation, to make a character carry the great burden of a metaphoric name. The character can be a device before he or she becomes a person, and that can be a bad thing for a writer who wants to offer up a kind of emotional proximity in the work. It's a constant struggle, the desire to be playful and the desire to communicate on some very stark emotional level.
I have a theory that you can make any sentence seem profound by writing the name of a dead philosopher at the end of it.
The young writer should learn to spot them: words that at first glance seem freighted with delicious meaning, but that soon burst in the air, leaving nothing but a memory of bright sound.
Words themselves are innocuous; it is the consensus that gives them true power.
Words can do wonderful things. They pound, purr. They can urge, they can wheedle, whip, whine. They can sing, sass, singe. They can churn, check, channelize. They can be a "Hup two three four." They can forge a fiery army of a hundred languid men.
I mean, language fascinates me anyway, and different words have different energies and you can change the whole drive of a sentence.
The words that we attach to our experience become our experience.
They're just words is all. Powerless. Vocabulary. Dialogue.
It's important to realize that words shape our beliefs and impact our actions.
Words are never 'only words'; they matter because they define the contours of what we can do.
The name we give to something shapes our attitude toward it.
what we call things matters. ... The words we use, and how we perceive those words, reflect how we value, or devalue, people, places, and things.
Words are the litmus paper of the minds. If you find yourself in the power of someone who will use the word "commence" in cold blood, go somewhere else very quickly. But if they say "Enter", don't stop to pack.
Words have users, but as well, users have words. And it is the users that establish the world's realities.
As a poet and writer, I deeply love and I deeply hate words.
