125 Writing Style Quotes

Following is our list of writing style quotations and slogans full of insightful wisdom and perspective about what are direct.

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Famous Writing Style Quotes

Style is a simple way of saying complicated things. - Jean Cocteau

Style is a simple way of saying complicated things. — Jean Cocteau

Style is the perfection of a point of view. — Richard Eberhart

The essence of style is a simple way of saying something complex. — Giorgio Armani

Style has always been in my mind the author's Self, the creative expression of that Self. — Whit Burnett

When an author is too meticulous about his style, you may presume that his mind is frivolous and his content flimsy. — Seneca

Concision in style, precision in thought, decision in life. — Victor Hugo

Style is a way to say who you are without having to speak. — Rachel Zoe

A style is not a matter of camera angles or fancy footwork, it's an expression, an accurate expression of your particular opinion. — Karel Reisz

Four basic premises of writing: clarity, brevity, simplicity, and humanity. — William Zinsser

Style is a reflection of your attitude and your personality. - Shawn Ashmore

Style is a reflection of your attitude and your personality. — Shawn Ashmore

Style is primarily a matter of instinct. — Bill Blass

Style is knowing who you are, what you want to say, and not giving a damn. — Gore Vidal

Style is a magic wand, and turns everything to gold that it touches. — Logan Pearsall Smith

Good prose should be transparent, like a window pane. — George Orwell

Style is about the choices you make to create the aspects of civilization that you wish to uphold. — David Bowie

Short Writing Style Quotes

  • Sometimes I wish I was poetic and subtle. I write very bold and blunt and tell it like it is. — Pink
  • At any one time language is a kaleidoscope of styles, genres and dialects. — David Crystal
  • I've been accused of being a minimalist writer. I don't like a lot of verbiage in there. — Kathy Reichs
  • The writer must write what he has to say, not speak it. — Ernest Hemingway
  • Writing is an act of faith, not a trick of grammar. — E.B. (Elwyn Brooks) White

Top 10 Writing Style Quotes

Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist. — Pablo Picasso

I've always written songs that were confessional, acoustic, wordy - my writing style matches my personality. The music always has to match the mouth it comes out of. — Camila Cabello

When I started writing 'A Million Little Pieces,' I felt like it was the right story with the style I had been looking for, and I just kept going. — James Frey

Free voluntary reading results in better reading comprehension, writing style, vocabulary, spelling, and grammatical development — Stephen D. Krashen

Have something to say, and say it as clearly as you can. That is the only secret. — Matthew Arnold

Stuart Rojstaczer writes with enormous wit, style and empathy, and The Mathematician's Shiva is a big-hearted, rollickingly funny novel that's impossible to put down. A tremendous debut. — Molly Antopol

I'm always aware of writing around things I can't do, and I've come to think that that's actually what 'style' is - an avoidance of your deficiencies. — George Saunders

Fine writing is a distinct disadvantage. So is unique literary style. They take attention from the subject — Claude C. Hopkins

My intention was to write a chapter of the moral history of my country and I chose Dublin for the scene because that city seemed to me the centre of paralysis. — James Joyce

Do not copy my style! The first rule of writing is write about what you know, not what you think you know. So, think about what you've done in your life and write about that. — Jackie Collins

Writing Style Image Quotes

Writing style quote There comes a point in your life when you need to stop reading other people's book and write your ow
There comes a point in your life when you need to stop reading other people's book and write your own.

What Are Quotes

I love you, not for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you. - Roy Croft

I love you, not for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you. — Roy Croft

Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful. — Albert Schweitzer

We are what we repeatedly do.  Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. - Aristotle

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. — Aristotle

Writing style quote Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing about.
Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing about.

The principle goal of education in the schools should be creating men and women who are capable of doing new things, not simply repeating what other generations have done. — Jean Piaget

Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are. — John Wooden

Never, never be afraid to do what's right, especially if the well-being of a person or animal is at stake. Society's punishments are small compared to the wounds we inflict on our soul when we look the other way. — Martin Luther King

Too many people overvalue what they are not and undervalue what they are. - Malcolm Stevenson Forbes

Too many people overvalue what they are not and undervalue what they are. — Malcolm Stevenson Forbes

A friend is one that knows you as you are, understands where you have been, accepts what you have become, and still, gently allows you to grow. — William Shakespeare

Everyone is in favor of free speech. Hardly a day passes without its being extolled, but some people's idea of it is that they are free to say what they like, but if anyone else says anything back, that is an outrage. — Winston Churchill

Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony. - Mahatma Gandhi

Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony. — Mahatma Gandhi

What Are Direct Quotes

You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You're on your own, and you know what you know. And you are the guy who'll decide where to go. — Dr. Seuss

Just what is meant by 'your word?' It means your conscious intention, your conscious direction, your conscious faith and acceptance that, because of what you are doing, the Power of Spirit will flow through your word in the direction you give It. — Ernest Holmes

Ultimately, what may be needed to address the obesity problem are direct taxes on body weight. — Jonathan Gruber

Writing style quote Until the lion learns to write, every story will glorify the hunter.
Until the lion learns to write, every story will glorify the hunter.

What ordinary men are directly aware of and what they try to do are bounded by the private orbits in which they live; their visions and their powers are limited. — C. Wright Mills

I’VE ALWAYS BEEN A REBEL. I NEVER DO THINGS THE WAY THEY’RE SUPPOSED TO BE DONE. EITHER I GO IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION OR I CREATE A NEW DIRECTION FOR MYSELF, REGARDLESS OF WHAT THE RULES ARE OR WHAT SOCIETY SAYS. — Grace Jones

The greatest thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving. — Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Writing style quote Write hard and clear about what hurts.
Write hard and clear about what hurts.

The greatest thing in this world is not so much where we stand as in what direction we are moving. — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Your success in your career will be in direct proportion to what you do after you've done what you are expected to do. — Brian Tracy

Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Yet what you need is not marches, demonstrations, rallies or wide associations, all of them are important. What you need is direct action. The sooner people understand that, the sooner we'll begin to change things. — Arthur Scargill

Literary Style Quotes

What a newspaper needs in its news, in its headlines, and on its editorial page is terseness, humor, descriptive power, satire, originality, good literary style, clever condensation and accuracy, accuracy, accuracy. — Joseph Pulitzer

A contemporary artist can use the findings of all epochs and all styles, from the most primitive literary expressions up to the most refined products of the baroque. — Juan Goytisolo

I no more thought of style or literary excellence than the mother who rushes into the street and cries for help to save her children from a burning house, thinks of the teachings of the rhetorician or the elocutionist. — Harriet Beecher Stowe

Writing style quote Writing, to me, is simply thinking through my fingers.
Writing, to me, is simply thinking through my fingers.

I shall christen this style the Mandarin, since it is beloved by literary pundits. It is the style of all the writers whose tendency is to make their language convey more than they mean to and more than they feel. It is the style of most artists and all humbug. — Cyril Connolly

The New Testament evinces its universal design in its very, style, which alone distinguishes it from all the literary productions of earlier and later times. — Philip Schaff

To my mind, Death in Venice represents an enormous advance in Mann's literary development, not simply for the commonly appreciated reason that he crafted a superbly supple and elegant style, apparently well suited to the kind of prose Aschenbach is supposed to write. — Philip Kitcher

Writing style quote Your life is your story. Write well. Edit often.
Your life is your story. Write well. Edit often.

I should say that I'm not conscious of any particular style or any particular literary device when I am writing. I have written 22 books, and they are all very different. I have tried all kinds of genres. — Isabel Allende

All literary style, especially national style, is made up of such coincidences, which are a spiritual sort of puns. That is why style is untranslatable. — Gilbert K. Chesterton

The beat literary movement is strong because of those very challenging and individual relationships and styles and contention and so on. So I just feel blessed by this kind of opportunity that came from it. It was a kind of seed. — Anne Waldman

Whose are the truly labored sentences? From the weak and flimsy periods of the politician and literary man, we are glad to turn even to the description of work, the simple record of the month's labor in the farmer's almanac, to restore our tone and spirits. — Henry David Thoreau

Writing Voice Quotes

You are going to feel like hell if you never write the stuff that is tugging on the sleeves in your heart--your stories, visions, memories, songs: your truth, your version of things, in your voice. That is really all you have to offer us, and it's why you were born. — Anne Lamott

To gain your own voice you have to forget about having it heard. — Allen Ginsberg

But the reality is when you write a song, you should be able to strip away all the instruments and just have a song right there with an acoustic guitar and a voice, and the song should be good. — Dweezil Zappa

Writing style quote A good friend knows all your stories. A best friend helped you write them.
A good friend knows all your stories. A best friend helped you write them.

Todd Glass has amazing energy on stage. Dave Attell is one of my favorites because he's a one liner comic who is always incredibly in the moment with the audience. As for newer people, I think Adrienne Iapalucci writes some great, dark jokes and Sean Patton has a hilarious voice on stage. — Anthony Jeselnik

Gaze into the fire, into the clouds, and as soon as the inner voices begin to speak... surrender to them. Don't ask first whether it's permitted, or would please your teachers or father or some god. You will ruin yourself if you do that. — Hermann Hesse

A writer's voice is not character alone, it is not style alone; it is far more. A writer's voice line the stroke of an artist's brush- is the thumbprint of her whole person- her idea, wit, humor, passions, rhythms. — Patricia Lee Gauch

Writing style quote Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.
Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.

You have to follow your own voice. You have to be yourself when you write. In effect, you have to announce, 'This is me, this is what I stand for, this is what you get when you read me. I'm doing the best I can - buy me or not - but this is who I am as a writer. — David Morrell

I write for those women who do not speak, for those who do not have a voice because they were so terrified, because we are taught to respect fear more than ourselves. We've been taught that silence would save us, but it won't. — Audre Lorde

When I started writing a business column 15 years ago, I knew I'd found the perfect job for myself. As a columnist I could pick my own topic, do my own analysis, say what I wanted to say and attribute it to myself. Best of all, I could write in my own voice. — Allan Sloan

I think what education gives you is a voice. It gives you a way of talking to a judge. When a policeman pulls you off to the side of the road, you have a voice. When you cross a border, you have a voice. When you are writing to express your opinions, you have a voice. — Richard Rodriguez

Personal Style Quotes

Behind the debris of these self-styled, sullen supermen and imperial diplomatists, there stands the gigantic figure of one person, because of whom, by whom, in whom, and through whom alone mankind might still have hope. The person of Jesus Christ. — Malcolm Muggeridge

Individual style is the correct balance of knowing who you are, what works fro you, and how to develop your own personality — Giorgio Armani

I'm personally not terribly interested in designing wholesome characters, so I don't have many variations to offer. — Akira Toriyama

Writing style quote You have the itch for writing born in you. It's quite incurable. What are you going to do with it?
You have the itch for writing born in you. It's quite incurable. What are you going to do with it?

Style is wearing an evening dress to McDonald's, wearing heels to play football. It is personality, confidence and seduction. — John Galliano

The women I draw all have the same sort of personality. I can't draw gentle girls; I only know how to draw ones who are strong-willed. — Akira Toriyama

I love my Adidas. — Joe Gatto

Writing style quote If they give you lined paper, write the other way.
If they give you lined paper, write the other way.

We're starting to push the envelope in terms of the expectations, and you can also have your own style, personality and sense of humor, because now we're allowed to. — Lisa Guerrero

You win with people, not with talent. So the quality of the people is very important in building your team. I always looked for people with a solid value system. Then I recruited kids from a cross-section of different personalities, talents and styles of play. — Herb Brooks

Rather than deliberately trying to draw something, use something you yourself like and want to draw, and I think the characters that come out of that will really have their own individuality. — Akira Toriyama

Understanding your own attachment style can be a powerful tool for personal growth and improving your relationships. — Amir Levine

People Writing About Writing Style

Name Quotes Likes
Read quotes by Jean Cocteau

Jean Cocteau

218 1392
Read quotes by Richard Eberhart

Richard Eberhart
quotes on education, leadership and life

13 140
Read quotes by Giorgio Armani

Giorgio Armani
quotes on education, art and life

96 1565
Read quotes by Seneca

Seneca
quotes on life, love and time

1196 4543
Read quotes by Victor Hugo

Victor Hugo
quotes on love, death and life

975 8205
Read quotes by Rachel Zoe

Rachel Zoe
quotes on love, friendship and pants

68 464

More Writing Style Quotes

Coming to understand a painting or a symphony in an unfamiliar style, to recognize the work of an artist or school, to see or hear in new ways, is as cognitive an achievement as learning to read or write or add. — Nelson Goodman

I don't care about truth; I care about art and style and writing and occupying the wall. For me, my writing style is very linked to the fact that it is a work of art on the wall. I had to find a way to write in concise, effective phrases that people standing or walking into a room could read. — Sophie Calle

I drop styles on ears...the public bite 'em. Not many went to school, so the dummies wouldn't write 'em. They say, "Yo Keith! You're Kool, you usin' big words!" I went to college, I'm even more stupid, herb. — Kool Keith

I went through a big Alice Cooper phase, which was probably a major influence on my writing style later, especially after Plastic Surgery Disasters. — Jello Biafra

After working as a journalist I went to a writing program at Johns Hopkins. It was interesting because it was neither journalistic nor historical, but it emphasized writing style, and afterwards I was asked to write my first book. — Iris Chang

I learn so much from writing with other musicians, asking questions about their playing style and gear, and hanging out, too. — Lisa Loeb

The fact that I'm shouting that I have Gangnam style makes people crack up. Imagine if Brad Pitt was singing the song - would it be funny? A twist is important when it comes to writing lyrics. — PSY

A good style should show no signs of effort. What is written should seem a happy accident. — W. Somerset Maugham

Resist the temptation to try to use dazzling style to conceal weakness of substance. — Stanley Schmidt

Whatever coast he's on, a man should be himself. I don't write in any particular idiom, I write Charles Mingus. — Charles Mingus

Tell a story! Don't try to impress your reader with style or vocabulary or neatly turned phrases. Tell the story first! — Anne Mccaffrey

The most durable thing in writing is style, and style is the single most valuable investment a writer can make with his time. — Raymond Chandler

A good writer does not write as people write, but as he writes. — Baron de Montesquieu

A simple style is like white light. Although complex, it does not appear to be so. — Anatole France

You hear it said time and time again by successful directors: You have to make a movie for yourself. Don't make it for anyone else. My style of filmmaking happens to be give the audience what they know they don't want, but they want. Ultimately I have to write and direct in a way that let's just say, you don't want to regret making a choice. — Jordan Peele

What I would like to write is a book about nothing, a book without exterior attachments, which would be held together by the innerforce of its style, as the earth without support is held in the air--a book that would have almost no subject or at least in which the subject would be almost invisible. — Gustave Flaubert

Every composer's music reflects in its subject-matter and in its style the source of the money the composer is living on while writing the music. — Virgil Thomson

However, please allow me to say that the fundamental style of my writing has been to start from my personal matters and then to link it up with society, the state and the world. — Kenzaburo Oe

If any man wishes to write a clear style, let him first be clear in his thoughts. — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

On "Tonight" I think I was torn dreadfully between writing what I wanted to write, but keeping it in a style that would follow up what I had just done. That's where I feel I was untrue to myself as an artist . . . that album and, to a lesser extent, "Never Let Me Down." — David Bowie

Young writers need to be encouraged to write - just write - with no restrictions on form, style or content. — Kelley Armstrong

A page of Addison or of Irving will teach more of style than a whole manual of rules, whilst a story of Poe's will impress upon the mind a more vivid notion of powerful and correct description and narration than will ten dry chapters of a bulky textbook. — H. P. Lovecraft

A creative person has to be alive. He can't borrow from things he's done in the past. He can't let his method choose his subjects or his characters. They can't be warped to fit his style. — John Steinbeck

Even experimental composers, revolutionary composers, self-styled radicals are, in writing revolutionary music, recognizing the music that preceded them precisely by trying to avoid it. — Leonard Bernstein

With many readers, brilliancy of style passes for affluence of thought; they mistake buttercups in the grass for immeasurable gold mines under ground. — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

What can we writers learn from lizards, lift from birds? In quickness is truth. The faster you blurt, the more swiftly you write, the more honest you are. In hesitation is thought. In delay comes the effort for a style, instead of leaping upon truth which is the only style worth deadfalling or tiger-trapping. — Ray Bradbury

Yoga introduced me to a style of meditation. The only meditation I would have done before would be in the writing of songs. — Sting

The self-styled intellectual who is impotent with pen and ink hungers to write history with sword and blood. — Eric Hoffer

Sometimes, I write '60s or '80s style pop songs. — Peter Steele

I hate it, it is tedious... when I write for my act, it is very improvisational, I write bullet points, I cannot sit in front of a computer; that is not my style. — Kathy Griffin

When I began to cover songs for YouTube, they all tended to be in the super pop-genre.. as in, smash-hit songs. My writing process was heavily influenced by this - I went from a more heavy punk rock style to straight up sugary-sweet pop. — Alex Goot

Probably the best way to describe my writing style is to refer you to "purple prose", which was a tag given to the early mass market magazine writers earning a half cent a word for their fiction. They had to use every adjective, verb and adverb in the English language to add word count to stories in order to feed and support families. — Tom Johnson

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