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When all things are equal, translucence in writing is more effective than transparency, just as glow is more revealing than glare.

— James Thurber Memo to The New Yorker (1959)

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Writing

More quotes by James Thurber

It is better to ask some of the questions than to know all the answers.

There is no safety in numbers, or in anything else.

There are two kinds of light — the glow that illumines, and the glare that obscures.

Lanterns and Lances‎ (1961)

Man has gone long enough, or even too long, without being man enough to face the simple truth that the trouble with Man is Man.

You can fool too many of the people too much of the time.

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Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.

Francis Bacon Meditationes sacræ (1597)

Strength of creative writing lies in the skill of handling words and articulating artistic expression of feelings.”

Suman Pokhrel

The free-lance writer is a man who is paid per piece or per word or perhaps.

Robert Benchley

Three sleepless nights I passed in sounding on,
Through words and things, a dim and perilous way.

William Wordsworth Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed (1919)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: James Thurber (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.