Peter Quennell

“This preoccupation with words… has since taken some fantastic turns; my love of the English language has become a superstitious cult; and, among other foibles, I go to absurd lengths to avoid repeating prepositions; the reappearance of “by” or “with” or “from,” unless they occur several lines apart, causes me acute dismay, and often obliges me to turn back and reconstruct a lengthy passage. I do not defend my mania. But one must write as one can; and, though far better writers would have found it highly ridiculous, the avoidance of such repetitions is a habit I can no longer shake off. Writing is a painful business; but the pleasure of building up a single lucid paragraph far exceeds the pains involved; while the conquest of a difficult sentence, which obstinately defies the author’s control and struggles snakelike in his grasp, is sometimes even more rewarding.”
― Peter Quennell