Quote

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

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
Read
Find
Great
Avoided
Work
Repetition
Editing
Deal
Deals
Reading

More quotes by William Safire

Image
The Republicans do not look on the Democrats as the evil empire.
William Safire
Image
I'm willing to zap conservatives when they do things that are not libertarian.
William Safire
Image
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.
William Safire
Image
The CEO era gave rise to the CFO (not certified flying object, as you might imagine, but chief financial officer) and, most recently, the CIO, chief investment officer, a nice boost for the bookkeeper you can't afford to give a raise . . .
William Safire
Image
A dependent clause is like a dependent child: incapable of standing on its own but able to cause a lot of trouble.
William Safire
Image
The new, old, and constantly changing language of politics is a lexicon of conflict and drama?ridicule and reproach?pleading and persuasion.
William Safire
Image
When articulation is impossible, gesticulation comes to the rescue.
William Safire
Image
After eating, an epicure gives a thin smile of satisfaction a gastronome, burping into his napkin, praises the food in a magazine a gourmet, repressing his burp, criticizes the food in the same magazine a gourmand belches happily and tells everybody where he ate a glutton empraces the white porcelain alter, or more plainly, he barfs.
William Safire
Image
I'm a right-wing pundit and have been for many years.
William Safire
Image
I think we have a need to know what we do not need to know.
William Safire
Image
The right to do something does not mean that doing it is right.
William Safire
Image
Is sloppiness in speech caused by ignorance or apathy? I don't know and I don't care.
William Safire
Image
Carter is the best President the Soviet Union ever had.
William Safire
Image
Adjective salad is delicious, with each element contributing its individual and unique flavor but a puree of adjective soup tastes yecchy.
William Safire
Image
I welcome new words, or old words used in new ways, provided the result is more precision, added color or greater expressiveness.
William Safire
Image
Avoid overuse of 'quotation “marks.”'
William Safire
Image
Never assume the obvious is true.
William Safire
Image
No one flower can ever symbolize this nation. America is a bouquet.
William Safire
Image
Previously known for its six syllables of sweetness and light, reconciliation has become the political fighting word of the year.
William Safire
Image
... it's Bush's baby, even if he shares its popularization with Gorbachev. Forget the Hitler 'new order' root F.D.R. used the phrase earlier.
William Safire