Clutter is the official language used by corporations to hide their mistakes.

My four articles of faith: clarity, simplicity, brevity and humanity.

A writer is obviously at his most natural and relaxed when he writes in the first person. Writing is a personal transaction between two people, conducted on paper, and the transaction will go well to the extent that it retains its humanity.

Readers must be given room to bring their own emotions to a piece so crammed with emotional content; the writer must tenaciously resist explaining why the material is so moving.

Writers who think THEY are being criticized when only that writing is being criticized are beyond a teacher's reach. Writing can only be learned when a writer coldly separates himself from what he has written and looks at it with the objectivity of a plumber examining a newly piped bathroom to see if he got all the joints tight.

There's not much to be said about the period except that most writers don't reach it soon enough.

Writers can write to affirm and to celebrate, or they can write to debunk and destroy; the choice is ours.