Today the discredit of words is very great. Most of the time the media transmit lies. In the face of read more

Today the discredit of words is very great. Most of the time the media transmit lies. In the face of an intolerable world, words appear to change very little. State power has become congenitally deaf, which is why --but the editorialists forget it --terrorists are reduced to bombs and hijacking.

If writers were good businessmen, they'd have too much sense to be writers.

If writers were good businessmen, they'd have too much sense to be writers.

The surest way to make a monkey of a man is to quote him.

The surest way to make a monkey of a man is to quote him.

Quotation... A writer expresses himself in words that have been used before because they give his meaning better than he read more

Quotation... A writer expresses himself in words that have been used before because they give his meaning better than he can give it himself, or because they are beautiful or witty, or because he expects them to touch a cord of association in his reader, or because he wishes to show that he is learned and well read. Quotations due to the last motive are invariably ill-advised; the discerning reader detects it and is contemptuous; the undiscerning is perhaps impressed, but even then is at the same time repelled, pretentious quotations being the surest road to tedium.

Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them all.

Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them all.

To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism, to steal ideas from many is research.

To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism, to steal ideas from many is research.

A blow with a word strikes deeper than a blow with a sword.

A blow with a word strikes deeper than a blow with a sword.

Some authors should be paid by the quantity NOT written.

Some authors should be paid by the quantity NOT written.

One must be a wise reader to quote wisely and well.

One must be a wise reader to quote wisely and well.