"I want to know, and to write, about the places where disparate points of view rub together--the spaces in between. Not just between man and woman but also North and South; white and non-white;communal and individual; spiritual and carnal. I can think of no genetic or cultural credentials that could entitle a writer to do this--only a keen ear, empathy, caution, willingness to be criticized, and a passionate attraction to the subject."
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Barbara Kingsolver, US essayist and author, 1995
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"He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary."
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William Faulkner, writer (1897-1962), on Ernest Hemingway, writer (1899-1961)
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"Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words?"
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Ernest Hemingway, writer (1899-1961), on
William Faulkner, writer (1897-1962)
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“Talent is helpful in writing, but guts are absolutely necessary.”
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Jessamyn West, author
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“Always grab the reader by the throat in the first paragraph, sink your thumbs into his windpipe in the second, and hold him against the wall until the tag line.”
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O’Neil’s Law (Paul O’Neil)
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“The only qualities essential for real success in journalism are rat-like cunning, a plausible manner, and a little literary ability.”
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Nicholas Tomalin, British journalist
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“There is another reason journalists like to drink and eat together: they simply cannot think of better company.”
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Osborn Elliott
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“When newspapers became solvent they lost a good deal of their old venality, but at the same time they became increasingly cautious, for capital is always timid.”
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H. L. Mencken
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“Editor: a person employed by a newspaper, whose business it is to separate the wheat from the chaff, and to see that the chaff is printed.”
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Elbert Hubbard, ‘The Roycroft Dictionary’
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“When a dog bites a man, that is not news, because it happens so often. But if a man bites a dog, that is news.”
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John B. Bogart
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“What’s missing [from today’s newspapers] is the spice that used to be offered by the misfits of society who became journalists, by the iconoclasts who became journalists, even the drunks who became journalists.”
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Marion Lewenstein, communications professor
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“Harmony seldom makes a headline.”
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Silas Bent
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“Good prose is the selection of the best words; poetry is the best words in the best order; and journalese is any old words in any old order.”
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Anonymous, quoted by Adam Brewer, 21 August 1987, letter to The Times
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“Never forget that if you don’t hit a newspaper reader between the eyes with your first sentence, there is no need of writing a second one.”
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Arthur Brisbane, c 1900,quoted in Oliver Carlson, Brisbane : A Candid Biography(1837)
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“The art of newspaper paragraphing is to stroke a platitude until it purrs like an epigram.”
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Don Marquis, in E. Anthony, 1962
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"Hemingway got something wonderful out of journalism and it shows in
his novels. Yes, one of the greatest American novelists of all time
was, indeed, a journalist. But generally speaking journalism is sloppy
writing, and unless you have a real talent, it can injure you to write
too quickly, come to too many conclusions. It's frantic and hysterical.
. . . Lots of journalism writing is bad because the pressure of being a
good writer is not the first talent you need to be a good journalist.
The first talent you need is the emotional readiness to introduce
yourself to strangers and pick their brains."
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--Norman Mailer, author, 2004
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