Quote

The beginner should approach style warily, realizing that it is himself he is approaching, no other and he should begin by turning resolutely away from all devices that are popularly believed to indicate style - all mannerisms, tricks, adornments. The approach to style is by way of plainness, simplicity, orderliness, sincerity.

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
Simplicity
Beginner
Adornments
Believed
Indicate
Warily
Begin
Beginners
Popularly
Approach
Approaching
Plainness
Style
Sincerity
Orderliness
Realizing
Devices
Resolutely
Away
Turning
Mannerisms
Way
Tricks
Adornment

More quotes by E. B. White

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You have been my friends. That in itself is a tremendous thing.
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Our vegetable garden is coming along well, with radishes and beans up, and we are less worried about revolution that we used to be.
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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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Why did you do all this for me?' he asked. 'I don't deserve it. I've never done anything for you.' 'You have been my friend,' replied Charlotte. 'That in itself is a tremendous thing.
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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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When my wife's Aunt Caroline was in her nineties, she lived with us, and she once remarked: 'Remembrance is sufficient of the beauty we have seen.' I cherish the remembrance of the beauty I have seen. I cherish the grave, compulsive word.
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America is now liberty-conscious. In a single generation it has progressed from being toothbrush-conscious, to being air-minded, to being liberty-conscious.
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As in the sexual experience, there are never more than two persons present in the act of reading-the writer, who is the impregnator, and the reader, who is the resspondent. This gives the experience of reading a sublimity and power unequalled by any other form of communication.
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The critic leaves at curtain fall To find, in starting to review it, He scarcely saw the play at all For starting to review it.
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Although there is no substitute for merit in writing, clarity comes closest to being one.
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Books are the door of escape from the forest.
E. B. White
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A writer who waits for ideal conditions under which to work will die without putting a word to paper.
E. B. White
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I can still see my first dog. For six years he met me at the same place after school and convoyed me home - a service he thought up himself. A boy doesn't forget that sort of association.
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In middle life, the human back is spoiling for a technical knockout and will use the flimsiest excuse, even a sneeze, to fall apart.
E. B. White
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The essayist . . . can pull on any sort of shirt, be any sort of person, according to his mood or his subject matter - philosopher, scold, jester, raconteur, confidant, pundit, devil's advocate, enthusiast.
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Advice to young writers wo want to get ahead without any annoying delays: don't write about Man, write about a man.
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The siren south is well enough, but New York, at the beginning of March, is a hoyden we would not care to miss--a drafty wench, her temperature up and down, full of bold promises and dust in the eye.
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A poem compresses much in a small space and adds music, thus heightening its meaning.
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The vision of milk and honey, it comes and goes. But the odor of cooking goes on forever.
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Life is always rich and steady time when you are waiting for something to happen or to hatch.
E. B. White