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If you re-read your work, you can find on re-reading a great deal of repetition can be avoided by re-reading and editing.

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
Deal
Deals
Reading
Read
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Great
Avoided
Work
Repetition
Editing

More quotes by William Safire

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The right to do something does not mean that doing it is right.
William Safire
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Is sloppiness in speech caused by ignorance or apathy? I don't know and I don't care.
William Safire
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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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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.
William Safire
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Decide on some imperfect Somebody and you will win, because the truest truism in politics is: You can't beat Somebody with Nobody.
William Safire
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The most fun in breaking a rule is in knowing what rule you're breaking.
William Safire
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Create your own constituency of the infuriated.
William Safire
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The most successful column is one that causes the reader to throw down the paper in a peak of fit.
William Safire
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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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Of higher value than any one leader is the cause.
William Safire
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One challenge to the arts in America is the need to make the arts, especially the classic masterpieces, accessible and relevant to today's audience.
William Safire
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Writers who used to show off their erudition no longer sing in the bare ruined choir of the media.
William Safire
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The tension between the governed and the governing is what makes the world go 'round. It's not love, it's that tension, because that tension exists in love affairs. The whole idea of control is at the heart of human relationships. Control and resistance to control.
William Safire
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Adapt your style, if you wish, to admit the color of slang or freshness of neologism, but hang tough on clarity, precision, structure, grace.
William Safire
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As long as one American is hungry... then we have unfinished business in this country.
William Safire
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Only in grammar can you be more than perfect.
William Safire
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The perfect Christmas gift for a sportscaster, as all fans of sports clichés know, is a scoreless tie.
William Safire
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If America cannot win a war in a week, it begins negotiating with itself.
William Safire
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Gridlock is great. My motto is, 'Don't just do something. Stand there.'
William Safire
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I welcome new words, or old words used in new ways, provided the result is more precision, added color or greater expressiveness.
William Safire