Writers are not just people who sit down and write. They hazard themselves. Every time you compose a book your composition of yourself is at stake. – E.L. Doctorow
Read over your compositions, and when you meet a passage which you think is particularly fine, strike it out. – Samuel Johnson, “Recalling the Advice of a College Tutor,” Boswell, Life of John
Comedy has to be done en clair. You cant blunt the edge of wit or the point of satire with obscurity. Try to imagine a famous witty saying that is not immediately clear. – James Thurber
From the beginning of our history the country has been afflicted with compromise. It is by compromise that human rights have been ;abandoned. – Charles Sumner
