Max Tomlinson > Max's Quotes

“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.”
― William Safire, Fumblerules: A Lighthearted Guide to Grammar and Good Usage

“Elmore Leonard's Ten Rules of Writing

1. Never open a book with weather.
2. Avoid prologues.
3. Never use a verb other than "said" to carry dialogue.
4. Never use an adverb to modify the verb "said”…he admonished gravely.
5. Keep your exclamation points under control. You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose.
6. Never use the words "suddenly" or "all hell broke loose."
7. Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly.
8. Avoid detailed descriptions of characters.
9. Don't go into great detail describing places and things.
10. Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.

My most important rule is one that sums up the 10.

If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.”
― Elmore Leonard

“Into the darkness they go, the wise and the lovely. ”
― Edna St. Vincent Millay

“A great nose may be an index
Of a great soul”
― Edmond Rostand, Cyrano de Bergerac

“Dear Mr Skully,

I have caught my neck in a mangle and will be indisposed for eternity.

Yours in death
S.D.”
― J.P. Donleavy, The Ginger Man

“There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.”
― W. Somerset Maugham

“We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold.”
― Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream

“Mother died today. Or maybe yesterday; I can't be sure.”
― Albert Camus, The Stranger

“I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.”
― Albert Einstein

“Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so.”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

“Most of living is waiting to live. And you spend a great deal of time worrying about things that don’t matter and about people that don’t matter and all this is clear to you when you know the very day you’re going to die.”
― Elliott Chaze, Black Wings Has My Angel

“Treachery and violence are a just return for treachery and violence.”
― Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

“There are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.”
― James Madison

“One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche

“Sanity is a less severe form of insanity.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“If the road is easy, you're likely going the wrong way.”
― Terry Goodkind

“Perfect paranoia is perfect awareness.”
― Stephen King

“No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear.”
― C.S. Lewis, A Grief Observed

“The only kind of writing is rewriting.”
― Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast

“There is only one plot—things are not what they seem.”
― Jim Thompson

“Truth is dangerous. It topples palaces and kills kings. It stirs gentle men to rage and bids them take up arms. It wakes old grievances and opens forgotten wounds. It is the mother of the sleepless night and the hag-ridden day. And yet there is one thing that is more dangerous than Truth. Those who would silence Truth’s voice are more destructive by far.

It is most perilous to be a speaker of Truth. Sometimes one must choose to be silent, or be silenced. But if a truth cannot be spoken, it must at least be known. Even if you dare not speak truth to others, never lie to yourself.”
― Frances Hardinge, Fly by Night

“You meet saints everywhere. They can be anywhere. They are people behaving decently in an indecent society.”
― Kurt Vonnegut

“It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend.”
― William Blake

“Yet each man kills the thing he loves
By each let this be heard
Some do it with a bitter look
Some with a flattering word
The coward does it with a kiss
The brave man with a sword”
― Oscar Wilde, The Ballad of Reading Gaol

“Stab the body and it heals, but injure the heart and the wound lasts a lifetime.”
― Mineko Iwasaki

“Betrayal is the only truth that sticks.”
― Arthur Miller

“My candle burns at both ends;
It will not last the night;
But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends—
It gives a lovely light!”
― Edna St. Vincent Millay, A Few Figs from Thistles

“Innocence is a kind of insanity”
― Graham Greene, The Quiet American