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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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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
Challenge
Needs
Especially
Make
Challenges
Masterpieces
Audience
Accessible
Art
Masterpiece
America
Relevant
Classic
Today
Arts
Need

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Why use a modifier to set straight a not-quite-right noun when the right noun is available?
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Create your own constituency of the infuriated.
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Sometimes I know the meaning of a word but am tired of it and feel the need for an unfamiliar, especially precise or poetic term, perhaps one with a nuance that flatters my readership's exquisite sensitivity.
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On the analogy of 'Dictionary Johnson,' we call Fred R. Shapiro, editor of the just-published Yale Book of Quotations (well worth the $50 price), 'Quotationeer Shapiro.' Shapiro does original research, earning his 1,067-page volume a place on the quotation shelf next to Bartlett's and Oxford's.
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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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When duty calls, that is when character counts.
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It behooves us to avoid archaisms. Never use a long word when a diminutive one will do.
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I want my questions answered by an alert and experienced politician, prepared to be grilled and quoted -- not my hand held by an old smoothie.
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The most successful column is one that causes the reader to throw down the paper in a peak of fit.
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English is a stretch language one size fits all.
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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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Never assume the obvious is true.
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The right to do something does not mean that doing it is right.
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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.
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I could get a better education interviewing John Steinbeck than talking to an English professor about novels.
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When I need to know the meaning of a word, I look it up in a dictionary.
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Avoid overuse of 'quotation “marks.”'
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