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When I need to know the meaning of a word, I look it up in a dictionary.

William Safire

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William Safire
Age: 79 †
Born: 1929
Born: December 17
Died: 2009
Died: September 27
Author
Columnist
Journalist
Writer
New York City
New York
William Lewis Safire
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More quotes by William Safire

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If America cannot win a war in a week, it begins negotiating with itself.
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I'm willing to zap conservatives when they do things that are not libertarian.
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The Republicans do not look on the Democrats as the evil empire.
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Dangling punch lines to forgotten stories remain in the language like the smile of the Cheshire cat.
William Safire
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Never put the story in the lead. Let 'em have a hot shot of ambiguity right between the eyes.
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Do not be taken in by 'insiderisms.' Fledgling columnists, eager to impress readers with their grasp of journalistic jargon, are drawn to such arcane spellings as 'lede.' Where they lede, do not follow.
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I'm a right-wing pundit and have been for many years.
William Safire
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Create your own constituency of the infuriated.
William Safire
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Never assume the obvious is true.
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Sir Alec Douglas-Home, when he was British Foreign Secretary, said he received the following telegram from an irate citizen: To hell with you. Offensive letter follows.
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Knowing how things work is the basis for appreciation, and is thus a source of civilized delight.
William Safire
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You don't overturn a previous court's decisions lightly and I think most Americans are somewhere in the middle on abortion and there's not going to be a revolution here at all.
William Safire
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Is sloppiness in speech caused by ignorance or apathy? I don't know and I don't care.
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Never look for the story in the 'lede.' Reporters are required to put what's happened up top, but the practiced pundit places a nugget of news, even a startling insight, halfway down the column, directed at the politiscenti. When pressed for time, the savvy reader starts there.
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[Senators John Kerry & John Edwards] have risen high in Democratic polls with a brand of class resentment and soak-the-rich rhetoric rooted in the old-fashioned liberalism of Ted Kennedy.
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This is what it's all about. From what I could see, you could get a bunch of people together, whip up the press and have some impact.
William Safire
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Don't expect others to do your work for you.
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A reader ought to be able to hold it and become familiar with its organized contents and make it a mind's manageable companion.
William Safire
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Color and bite permeate a language designed to rally many men, to destroy some, and to change the minds of others.
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The wonderful thing about being a New York Times columnist is that it's like a Supreme Court appointment - they're stuck with you for a long time.
William Safire