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A writer’s style reveals something of his spirit, his habits, his capacites, his bias…it is the Self escaping into the open.

E. B. White

There is nothing harder to estimate than a writer’s time, nothing harder to keep track of. There are moments—moments of sustained creation—when his time is fairly valuable; and there are hours and hours when a writer’s time isn’t worth the paper he is not writing anything on.
E. B. WHITE

Estimate Harder Keep Nothing Of Time Track
Loneliness is a strange gift.
E. B. WHITE

Gift Loneliness Strange
A poet’s pleasure is to withhold a little of his meaning, to intensify by mystification. He unzips the veil from beauty, but does not remove it.
E. B. WHITE

Intensify Meaning Mystification Pleasure Poet Withhold
There is hardly a waiting room in the east that has not served as my cockpit, whether I was waiting to board a train or to see a dentist. And I am usually still trimming sheets when the train starts or drill begins to whine.
E. B. WHITE

Begin Cockpit Start Train Trim Usually Wait
The best writing is rewriting.
E. B. WHITE

Best Rewriting Write
There is nothing more likely to start disagreement among people or countries than an agreement.
E. B. WHITE

Agreement Country Disagreement Likely More Nothing People Start
Nauseous. Nauseated. The first means “sickening to contemplate”; the second means “sick at the stomach.” Do not, therefore, say “I feel nauseous,” unless you are sure you have that effect on others.
E. B. WHITE

Contemplate Country Eman People Person Place Second Sick Stomach
I get up every morning determined to both change the world and to have one hell of a good time. Sometimes, this makes planning the day difficult.
E. B. WHITE

Both Challenge Determine Get Good Time Heel Morning One World
Children are game for anything. I throw them hard words, and they backhand them over the net. They love words that give them a hard time, provided they are in a context that absorbs their attention.
E. B. WHITE

Anything Background Children Game Hand Net Over Them Throw Word
When I get sick of what men do, I have only to walk a few steps in another direction to see what spiders do. Or what the weather does. This sustains me very well indeed.
E. B. WHITE

Another Direction Do Get Men Only Sick Spider Step Walk
Reading is the work of the alert mind, is demanding, and under ideal conditions produces finally a sort of ecstasy.
E. B. WHITE

Alert Condition Demand Finally Ideal Mind Produce Read Sort Under Work
Geese are friends to no one, they bad mouth everybody and everything. But they are companionable once you get used to their ingratitude and false accusations.
E. B. WHITE

Bad Companionable Everybody Everything Friend Geese Get Mouth Use
A schoolchild should be taught grammar-for the same reason that a medical student should study anatomy.
E. B. WHITE

Anatomy Grammar Medical Reason Same Schoolchild Student Study Taught
It is quite possible that an animal has spoken to me and that I didn’t catch the remark because I wasn’t paying attention.
E. B. WHITE

Animal Attention Catch Play Possible Quite Remark Spoken
The city that is devoured by locusts each day and spat out each night. Third, there is the New York of the person who was born somewhere else and came to New York in quest of something.
E. B. WHITE

City Country Day Each Locust Person Something Somewhere
The world is full of people who have never, since childhood, met an open doorway with an open mind.
E. B. WHITE

Childhood Doorway Full Met Mind Open People Since World

A writer’s style reveals something of his spirit, his habits, his capacites, his bias…it is the Self escaping into the open.

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A writer’s style reveals something of his spirit, his habits, his capacites, his bias…it is the Self escaping into the open.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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