Literature and Words

Le Malade Imaginaire .

Men and words are ready made, and you, O Painter, if you do not know how to make your figures move, are like an orator who knows not how to use his words.

The only difference between reality and fiction is that fiction needs to be credible.

Truth is more of a stranger than fiction.

It is my belief that nearly any invented quotation, played with confidence, stands a good chance to deceive .

Hence poetry is something more philosophic and of graver import than history, since its statements are rather of the nature of universals, whereas those of history are singulars.

For the love of God don’t condescend! Don’t assume the attitude of saying, “See how clever I am, and what fun everybody else is!”

Clear your mind of cant.

There is probably some long-standing “rule” among writers, journalists, and other word-mongers that says: “When you start stealing from your own work you’re in bad trouble.” And it may be true.

One of the disadvantages of wine is that it makes a man mistake words for thoughts.

Always be a poet, even in prose.

The secret of play-writing can be given in two maxims: stick to the point, and, whenever you can, cut.

Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all.

When you’re writing, you’re trying to find out something which you don’t know.

A strict and succinct style is that, where you can take away nothing without loss, and that loss to be manifest.

There is no doubt about it, in the twentieth century if you are to come to be writing really writing you cannot make a living at it no not by writing.

It was from Handel that I learned that style consists in force of assertion. If you can say a thing with one stroke, unanswerably you have style; if not, you are at best a marchande de plaisir , a decorative litterateur, or a musical confectioner, or a painter of fans with cupids and coquettes. Handel had power.

Keep away from books and from men who get their ideas from books, and your own books will always be fresh.

If, in the first chapter, you say there is a gun hanging on the wall, you should make quite sure that it is going to be used further on in the story.

There is always one right word; use it, despite its foul or merely ludicrous associations.

Never use a metaphor, simile or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print. Never use a long word where a short one will do. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out. Never use the passive where you can use the active. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday British equivalent. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbaric.

It is dangerous to let the public behind the scenes. They are easily disillusioned and then they are angry with you, for it was the illusion they loved; they do not understand that what interests you is the way in which you have created the illusion. Anthony Trollope ceased to be read for thirty years because he confessed that he wrote at regular hours and took care to get the best price he could for his work.

H EMINGWAY GAVE a great piece of advice about writing, which I follow. He said always finish when you’re in a little bit of a flow, for the next bout.

I REMEMBER [John] Gardner telling me, “Read all the Faulkner you can get your hands on, and then read all of Hemingway to clean the Faulkner out of your system.”