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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.
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
Answered
Experienced
Held
Questions
Smoothie
Politician
Smoothies
Prepared
Grilled
Hand
Quoted
Hands
Alert
More quotes by William Safire
Adjective salad is delicious, with each element contributing its individual and unique flavor but a puree of adjective soup tastes yecchy.
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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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Is sloppiness in speech caused by ignorance or apathy? I don't know and I don't care.
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A book should have an intellectual shape and a heft that comes with dealing with a primary subject.
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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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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.
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The new, old, and constantly changing language of politics is a lexicon of conflict and drama?ridicule and reproach?pleading and persuasion.
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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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The first ladyship is the only federal office in which the holder can neither be fired nor impeached.
William Safire
The trick is to start early in our careers the stress-relieving avocation that we will need later as a mind-exercising final vocation. We can quit a job, but we quit fresh involvement at our mental peril.
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I think we have a need to know what we do not need to know.
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When articulation is impossible, gesticulation comes to the rescue.
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Give your main clause a little space. Prose is not like boxing the skilled writer deliberately telegraphs his punch, knowing that the reader wants to take the message directly on the chin.
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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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Remember to never split an infinitive. The passive voice should never be used. Do not put statements in the negative form. Proofread carefully to see if you words out. And don't start a sentence with a conjugation.
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I'm willing to zap conservatives when they do things that are not libertarian.
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George Washington had a tough second term.
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The Republicans do not look on the Democrats as the evil empire.
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The remarkable legion of the unremarked, whose individual opinions are not colorful or different enough to make news, but whose collective opinion, when crystallized, can make history.
William Safire
The perfect Christmas gift for a sportscaster, as all fans of sports clichés know, is a scoreless tie.
William Safire