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No one can write decently who is distrustful of the reader's intelligence or whose attitude is patronizing.

E. B. White

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E. B. White
Age: 86 †
Born: 1899
Born: July 11
Died: 1985
Died: October 1
Editor
Essayist
Journalist
Novelist
Poet
Screenwriter
Writer
Mount Vernon
New York
Elwyn Brooks White
E.B. White
Write
Writing
Distrustful
Decently
Patronizing
Intelligence
Whose
Reader
Attitude

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I am reminded of the advice of my neighbor. Never worry about your heart till it stops beating.
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Never hurry and never worry!
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My prose style at this time was a stomach-twisting blend of the Bible, Carl Sandburg, H.L. Mencken, Jeffrey Farnol, Christopher Morley, Samuel Pepys, and Franklin Pierce Adams imitating Samuel Pepys. I was quite apt to throw in a bless the mark at any spot, and to begin a sentence with Lord comma.
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new york provides not only a continuing excitation but also a spectacle that is continuing.
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Necessity first mothered invention. Now invention has little ones of her own, and they look just like grandma.
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There is another sort of day which needs celebrating in song -- the day of days when spring at last holds up her face to be kissed, deliberate and unabashed. On that day no wind blows either in the hills or in the mind.
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I have a spaniel that defrocked a nun last week. He took hold of the cord. I had hold of the leash. It was like elephants holding tails. Imagine me undressing a nun, even second hand.
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Writing is an act of faith, not a trick of grammar.
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Don't write about Man write about a man.
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A writer is like a bean plant - he has his little day, and then gets stringy.
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We should all do what, in the long run, gives us joy, even if it is only picking grapes or sorting the laundry.
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A “fraternity” is the antithesis offraternity. The first (that is, the order or organization) is predicated on the idea of exclusion the second (that is, the abstract thing) is based on a feeling of total equality.
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All that I hope to say in books, all that I ever hope to say, is that I love the world.
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Life is always rich and steady time when you are waiting for something to happen or to hatch.
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It was the best place to be, thought Wilbur, this warm delicious cellar, with the garrulous geese, the changing seasons, the heat of the sun, the passage of swallows, the nearness of rats, the sameness of sheep, the love of spiders, the smell of manure, and the glory of everything.
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I have always felt that the first duty of a writer was to ascend - to make flights, carrying others along if you can manage it. To do this takes courage, even a certain conceit.
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The whole duty of a writer is to please and satisfy himself, and the true writer always plays to an audience of one.
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Early summer days are a jubilee time for birds. In the fields, around the house, in the barn, in the woods, in the swamp - everywhere love and songs and nests and eggs.
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Wilbur didn't want food, he wanted love.
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Sailors have an expression about the weather: they say the weather is a great bluffer. I guess the same is true of our human society — things can look dark, then a break shows in the clouds, and all is changed.
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