Vocabulary Building Quotes

“All of us possess a reading vocabulary as big as a lake but draw from a writing vocabulary as small as a pond. The good news is that the acts of searching and gathering always expand the number of usable words.”
― Roy Peter Clark, Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies for Every Writer

“Never too late for vocabulary building,” he said.”
― Michel Faber, The Book of Strange New Things

“One cannot successfully express their ideas without having solid vocabulary skills.”
― Adriana Vandelinde, English for Her: Everything You Always Wanted to Know But Were Afraid to Ask

“The brain is more like a muscle and less like a storage area. If you really want to be a writer, you should want to write a lot. If you want to write a lot, then you need to be in training. You are preparing to run marathons, not emptying a suitcase. Learning new languages, acquiring new vocabulary, keeping yourself in various forms of constant logocentric discipline is one of the best things you can do. And language acquisition is nothing if not logocentric discipline.”
― Douglas Wilson, Wordsmithy: Hot Tips for the Writing Life

“He had waited a long time for this special December. Now that it was almost upon him, he wasn’t frightened, but he was . . . eager, he decided. He was eager for it to come. And he was excited, certainly. All of the Elevens were
excited about the event that would be coming so soon. But there was a little shudder of nervousness when he thought about it, about what might happen.
Apprehensive, Jonas decided. That’s what I am.”
― Louis Lowry