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1 " Never use abstract nouns when concrete ones will do. If you mean “More people died” don’t say “Mortality rose. "
― C.S. Lewis , Letters to Children
2 " I enjoy writing fiction more than writing anything else. Wouldn't anyone? "
3 " You see, I don't think age matters so much as people think. Parts of me are still 12 and I think other parts were already 50 when I was 12…. "
4 " In writing. Don't use adjectives which merely tell us how you want us to feel about the thing you are describing. I mean, instead of telling us a thing was "terrible," describe it so that we'll be terrified. Don't say it was "delightful"; make us say "delightful" when we've read the description. You see, all those words (horrifying, wonderful, hideous, exquisite) are only like saying to your readers, "Please will you do my job for me."[Letter to Joan Lancaster, 26 June 1956] "
5 " Remember that there are only three kinds of things anyone need ever do. (1) Things we ought to do (2) Things we've got to do (3) Things we like doing. I say this because some people seem to spend so much of their time doing things for none of these three reasons, things like reading books they don't like because other people read them. "
6 " What a drole idea in Florida, to give credits not for what you know but for hours spent in a classroom! Rather like judging the condition of an animal not by its weight or shape but by the amount of food that had been offered it! "
