Five common traits of good writers: (1) They have something to say. (2) They read widely and have done so since childhood. (3) They possess what Isaac Asimov calls a "capacity for clear thought," able to go from point to point in an orderly sequence, an A to Z approach. (4) They're geniuses at putting their emotions into words. (5) They possess an insatiable curiosity, constantly asking Why and How.

Style is important, but content comes first.

If you would write emotionally, be first unemotional. If you would move your readers to tears, do not let them see you cry.

The chief difference between good writing and better writing may be measured by the number of imperceptible hesitations the reader experiences as he goes along.

Writers must rely more on the feel of a sentence than on the dictates of a rule book.

Good similes depend upon close observation. They depend upon brevity and wit....They have to fit in context.

It wasn't the Supreme Court that expelled God from our public school classrooms. It was the textbook publishers.