Quote

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.

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
Littles
Message
Chins
Little
Messages
Skilled
Take
Reader
Punch
Giving
Writer
Deliberately
Like
Wants
Prose
Clause
Knowing
Boxing
Telegraph
Space
Directly
Clauses
Give
Main
Chin

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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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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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In dealing with Syria's dictator...only force counts. No cease-fire was attainable in Lebanon until the 16-inch guns of the battleship New Jersey started shelling Syria's proxies suddenly, sweet reason prevailed in Damascus.
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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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If America cannot win a war in a week, it begins negotiating with itself.
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When articulation is impossible, gesticulation comes to the rescue.
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It is in the nature of tyranny to deride the will of the people as the voice of the mob, and to denounce the cry for freedom as the roar of anarchy.
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Only in grammar can you be more than perfect.
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Writers who used to show off their erudition no longer sing in the bare ruined choir of the media.
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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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By elevating your reading, you will improve your writing or at least tickle your thinking.
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At a certain point, what people mean when they use a word becomes its meaning.
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Gridlock is great. My motto is, 'Don't just do something. Stand there.'
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[Senators John Kerry & John Edwards] have risen high in Democratic polls with a brand of class resentment and soak-the-rich rhetoric rooted in the old-fashioned liberalism of Ted Kennedy.
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Don't expect others to do your work for you.
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The perfect Christmas gift for a sportscaster, as all fans of sports clichés know, is a scoreless tie.
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A reader ought to be able to hold it and become familiar with its organized contents and make it a mind's manageable companion.
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Avoid overuse of 'quotation “marks.”'
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We are all environmentalists now, but we are not all planetists. An environmentalist realizes that nature has its pleasures and deserves respect. A planetist puts the earth ahead of the earthlings.
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