Roy Peter Clark quotes:
-
I may have grown up in the Age of Aquarius, but I'm growing old in the Age of the Acronym.
-
Without a serious study of journalism, there can be no understanding of citizenship, democracy, or community.
-
Express your most powerful thought in the shortest sentence.
-
The bridge between the words glamour and grammar is magic. According to the OED, glamour evolved through an ancient association between learning and enchantment.
-
Riffing on language will create wonderful effects you never intended. Which leads me to this writing advice: 'Always take credit for good stuff you didn't intend, because you'll be getting plenty of criticism in your career for bad stuff you didn't mean either.'
-
A teacher of mine once said there are no true synonyms.
-
Having the urge to write is one thing; acting on it is another.
-
But doesn't add something to what has come before; but takes something away. At its most daring, it can feel like a Bat Turn, a 180-degree spin int the Batmobile. Make that a But Turn.
-
Everyone should read, we say, but we act as if only those with special talent should write.
-
For what good is freedom of expression if you lack the means to express yourself?
-
If a period is a stop sign, then what kind of traffic flow is created by other marks? The comma is a speed bump; the semicolon is what a driver education teacher calls a "rolling stop"; the parenthetical expression is a detour; the colon is a flashing yellow light that announces something important up ahead; the dash is a tree branch in the road.
-
Writing is not magic. It's a craft, a process, a set of steps. As with any process, things sometimes break down. Even in a good story, the writer runs into problems. So the act of writing always includes problem solving.