Writers are word lovers and when we love them hard and long enough, they love us back. Writerly thoughts on word wooing to inspire us all:
“A writer is a person who cares what words mean, what they say, how they say it….Story-tellers and poets spend their lives learning that skill and art of using words well. And their words make the souls of their readers stronger, brighter, deeper.” Ursula Le Guin
“Words set things in motion….Words set up atmospheres, electrical fields, charges. I’ve felt them doing it. Words conjure. I try not to be careless about what I utter, write, sing.” Toni Cade Bambara
“A writer who has never explored words, who has never searched, seeded, sieved, sifted through his knowledge and memory…thesaurus, poems, favorite paragraphs, to find the right word, is like someone owning a gold mine who has never mined it.” Rumer Godden
“Nothing is more satisfying than to write a good sentence. It is no fun to write lumpishly, dully, in prose that the reader must plod through like wet sand. But it is a pleasure to achieve, if one can, a clear running prose that is simple yet full of surprises. This does not just happen. It requires skill, hard work, a good ear, and continued practice.“ Barbara Tuchman
“One must be drenched in words, literally soaked in them, to have the right ones form themselves into the proper pattern at the right moment.” Hart Crane
“When I feel inclined to read poetry, I take down my dictionary. The poetry of words is quite as beautiful as the poetry of sentences.” Oliver Wendell Holmes
“Savor them in your mouth, try them on your typewriter.” Ray Bradbury
“Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart.” William Wordsworth
Word lovers unite — and write on!
