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

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When your government, employer, landlord, merchant, banker and local sports team gang up to picture, digitize and permanently record your every activity, you are placed under unprecedented control.
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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.
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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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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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I could get a better education interviewing John Steinbeck than talking to an English professor about novels.
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Never feel guilty about reading, it's what you do to do your job.
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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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The Republicans do not look on the Democrats as the evil empire.
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Have a definite opinion.
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English is a stretch language one size fits all.
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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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When articulation is impossible, gesticulation comes to the rescue.
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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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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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Dangling punch lines to forgotten stories remain in the language like the smile of the Cheshire cat.
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President Reagan is a rhetorical roundheels, as befits a politician seeking empathy with his audience.
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Took me a while to get to the point today, but that is because I did not know what the point was when I started.
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What a joy it is to see really professional media manipulation.
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Never look for the story in the 'lede.' Reporters are required to put what's happened up top, but the practiced pundit places a nugget of news, even a startling insight, halfway down the column, directed at the politiscenti. When pressed for time, the savvy reader starts there.
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