A simple [writing] style is the result of very hard work.

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

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

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

Don’t say you were a bit confused and sort of tired and a little depressed and somewhat annoyed. Be tired. Be confused. Be depressed. Be annoyed. Don’t hedge your prose with little timidities. Good writing is lean and confident.

Many of us were taught that no sentence should begin with "but." If that's what you learned, unlearn it - there's no stronger word at the start. It announces a total contrast with what has gone before, and the reader is thereby primed for the change.

Even a poor translator couldn't kill a style that moves with such narrative clarity.