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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

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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
Like
Supreme
Court
York
Wonderful
Columnist
Times
Columnists
Thing
Appointment
Long
Appointments
Time
Stuck

More quotes by William Safire

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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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By elevating your reading, you will improve your writing or at least tickle your thinking.
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The most fun in breaking a rule is in knowing what rule you're breaking.
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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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The most successful column is one that causes the reader to throw down the paper in a peak of fit.
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I'm willing to zap conservatives when they do things that are not libertarian.
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Never feel guilty about reading, it's what you do to do your job.
William Safire
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Create your own constituency of the infuriated.
William Safire
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Only in grammar can you be more than perfect.
William Safire
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A reader should be able to identify a column without its byline or funny little picture on top purely by look or feel, or its turgidity ratio.
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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.
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Dangling punch lines to forgotten stories remain in the language like the smile of the Cheshire cat.
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Don't expect others to do your work for you.
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Better to be a jerk that knees than a knee that jerks.
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Cast aside any column about two subjects. It means the pundit chickened out on the hard decision about what to write about that day.
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Gridlock is great. My motto is, 'Don't just do something. Stand there.'
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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.
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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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Different regions may require different strategies, as President Bush has noted, but not different basic principles. It's either collective security or selective security.
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At a certain point, what people mean when they use a word becomes its meaning.
William Safire