William Strunk, Jr. Quotes

The surest way to arouse and hold the attention of the reader is by being specific, definitive, and concrete. The greatest writers - Homer, Dante, Shakespeare - are effective largely because they deal in particulars and report the details that matter. Their words call up pictures.

William Strunk, Jr.

• Attention
• Deals
• Details
• Concrete

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Quotes to Explore

• I'm so excited to be working on 'Doctor Who,' as it's such a big and important part of British culture.

  

  Maisie Williams
  • Important
  • Culture
  • Doctor

• There definitely will be flying cars, but whether there'll be flying cars for most people to use, it'll probably take a long time to straighten everything out, all the rules and hassles. It'll take a while to figure out how to keep people from crashing into each other.

  

  Zack Greinke
  • People
  • Time
  • Long

• I'm not so sure I believe in dopplegangers. I just prefer to be Dane DeHaan.

  

  Dane DeHaan
  • Believe
  • I Believe
  • Just

• Gun owners and non-gun owners alike agree on expanding background checks, making gun trafficking a serious crime with stiff penalties, making it illegal for all stalkers and all domestic abusers to buy guns, and expanding mental health resources so the mentally ill find it easier to receive treatment than to buy firearms.

  

  Gabrielle Giffords
  • Health
  • Serious
  • Gun

• I'd rather be strongly wrong than weakly right.

  

  Tallulah Bankhead
  • Right
  • Wrong
  • Rather

• Because of the structure of the contemporary American party system, every president is polarizing.

  

  Larry J. Sabato
  • American
  • Party
  • System

• I remember, one day, I just printed out about a hundred CVs, and I was running around London. I was going to modeling agencies, temping agencies, anything. I was so desperate.

  

  Fleur East
  • Remember
  • Running
  • Day

• A bad hair day for me is when it gets flat and greasy.

  

  Sabrina Carpenter
  • Bad
  • Day
  • Hair

• It's so fascinating to think about how each snowflake is completely individual - there are millions and millions of them, but each one is so unique.

  

  Kate Bush
  • Think
  • Unique
  • Snowflake

• I actually think Bill Gates is conventionally smarter, even though it's a dumb word, but mental processing power - I've watched him use four different screens, process information, get to the right answer, boom boom boom.

  

  Walter Isaacson
  • Different
  • Power
  • Process

• What America does best is produce the ability to accept failure.

  

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb
  • America
  • Best
  • Failure

• I don't consider myself a musician. I'm an artist.

  

  M.I.A.
  • Myself
  • Artist
  • Musician

• A culture produces ideas which are being explored, which of interest to that culture at that moment. And I think one of the things a writer can do is to take those ideas and go a bit further with them.

  

  Kate Grenville
  • Culture
  • Ideas
  • Moment

• With Spotify, people don't get it until they try it. Then they tell their friends.

  

  Daniel Ek
  • People
  • Friends
  • Try

• Winston Churchill would be great to have around the table.

  

  Ian Botham
  • Great
  • Around
  • Table

• I told my agent which women I aspire to have a career like: Frances McDormand, Kate Winslet, Laura Linney and Emma Thompson - character actresses who have something to say. I also said that I loved Madeline Kahn and Jessica Lange.

  

  Rachael Harris
  • Women
  • Character
  • Career

• Tax cuts are like sex: When they are good, they are very, very good. And when they are bad, they are still pretty good.

  

  M. Stanton Evans
  • Good
  • Bad
  • Pretty

• I've always said that the word 'genius,' especially in Hollywood, is way overused.

  

  Ted McGinley
  • Said
  • Genius
  • Hollywood

• Back home everyone said I didn't have any talent. They might be saying the same thing here but it sounds better in French.

  

  Alan Jay Lerner
  • Home

• It is better decoration when, in painting, some monstrosity is introduced for variety and a relaxation of the senses and to attract the attention of mortal eyes, which at times desire to see that which they have never seen.

  

  Michelangelo
  • Attention
  • Desire
  • Painting

• The worst thing you can become in life is cynical. Cynical is like concrete. and nothing grows in concrete.

  

  Carlos Santana Santana
  • Life is
  • Cynical
  • Concrete

• In all that was to happen, there would be that feeling of inevitability and rightness, and the sense that the universe was conspiring in it. It would be easy.

  

  Laini Taylor
  • Feeling
  • Universe
  • Feelings

• If you were not to be its victim, this book and body would amuse you with its arrogance. It would make you laugh. Because you were not its victim, you could feel no pain of betrayal.

  

  Peter Greenaway
  • Book
  • Pain
  • Betrayal

• The surest way to arouse and hold the attention of the reader is by being specific, definitive, and concrete. The greatest writers - Homer, Dante, Shakespeare - are effective largely because they deal in particulars and report the details that matter. Their words call up pictures.

  

  William Strunk, Jr.
  • Attention
  • Deals
  • Details