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

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No one flower can ever symbolize this nation. America is a bouquet.
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When articulation is impossible, gesticulation comes to the rescue.
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Adapt your style, if you wish, to admit the color of slang or freshness of neologism, but hang tough on clarity, precision, structure, grace.
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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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President Reagan is a rhetorical roundheels, as befits a politician seeking empathy with his audience.
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The most fun in breaking a rule is in knowing what rule you're breaking.
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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 . . .
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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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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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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.
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Have a definite opinion.
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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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Nobody stands taller than those willing to stand corrected.
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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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When duty calls, that is when character counts.
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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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I could get a better education interviewing John Steinbeck than talking to an English professor about novels.
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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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Dangling punch lines to forgotten stories remain in the language like the smile of the Cheshire cat.
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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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