Good writing has an aliveness that keeps the reader reading from one paragraph to the next, and it's not a question of gimmicks to "personalize" the author.

What I want to do is to make people laugh so that they'll see things seriously.

Telling a writer to relax is like telling a man to relax while being prodded for a possible hernia.

The writer who cares about usage must always know the quick from the dead.

Don't hedge your prose with little timidities. Good writing is lean and confident. . . . Every little qualifier whittles away some fraction of the reader's trust. Readers want a writer who believes in himself and in what he is saying. Don't diminish that belief. Don't be kind of bold. Be bold.

If you lose the dullards back in the dust, that's where they belong. You don't want them anyway.

If the nails are weak, your house will collapse. If your verbs are weak and your syntax is rickety, your sentences will fall apart.