“Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that every word tell.”
― The Elements of Style
― The Elements of Style
“To be a poet is to have a soul so quick to discern, that no shade of quality escapes it, and so quick to feel, that discernment is but a hand playing with finely-ordered variety on the chords of emotion--a soul in which knowledge passes instantaneously into feeling, and feeling flashes back as a new organ of knowledge.”
― Middlemarch
― Middlemarch
“Catherine Earnshaw, may you not rest as long as I am living. You said I killed you--haunt me then. The murdered do haunt their murderers. I believe--I know that ghosts have wandered the earth. Be with me always--take any form--drive me mad. Only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you! Oh, God! It is unutterable! I cannot live without my life! I cannot live without my soul!”
― Wuthering Heights
― Wuthering Heights
“Writing is like sex. First you do it for love, then you do it for your friends, and then you do it for money.”
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“Think before you speak. Read before you think.”
― The Fran Lebowitz Reader
― The Fran Lebowitz Reader
Sam’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Sam’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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