The Washington Post’s neologism contest winners.

02 Dec, 2019

I came across this today and broke up laughing. These are seriously clever! Thanks to the Washington Post. I wasn't aware of their neologism contest, but I am now! Read and enjoy. Pass it along.

The Washington Post’s neologism contest winners.

December 2, 2019May 9, 2025

I came across this today and broke up laughing. These are seriously clever! Thanks to the Washington Post. I wasn’t aware of Read More...

Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don’t see any.

Orson Scott Card

Do not place a photograph of your favorite author on your desk, especially if the author is one of the famous ones who committed suicide.

Roddy Doyle

If you start with a bang, you won’t end with a whimper.

T.S. Eliot

Do you know what a playwright is? A playwright is someone who lets his guts hang out on the stage.

Edward Albee

Editor: A person employed by a newspaper, whose business it is to separate the wheat from the chaff, and to see that the chaff is printed.

Elbert Hubbard

Easy reading is damn hard writing.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.

Thomas Jefferson

Have something to say, and say it as clearly as you can. That is the only secret.

Matthew Arnold

It took me fifteen years to discover I had no talent for writing, but I couldn’t give it up because by that time I was too famous.

Robert Benchley

The road to ignorance is paved with good editors.

George Bernard Shaw

It begins with a character, usually, and once he stands up on his feet and begins to move, all I can do is trot along behind him with a paper and pencil, trying to keep up long enough to put down what he says and does.

William Faulkner

It always comes down to characters, and individual stories about courage.

Steven Bochco

Read a thousand books and your words will flow like a river.

Lisa See

When writing a novel, that’s pretty much entirely what life turns into: “House burned down. Car stolen. Cat exploded. Did 1,500 easy words, so all in all it was a pretty good day.”

Neil Gaiman

My own experience is that once a story has been written, one has to cross out the beginning and the end. It is there that we authors do most of our lying.

Anton Chekhov

The character that lasts is an ordinary guy with some extraordinary qualities.

Raymond Chandler

The fact is, I don’t know where my ideas come from. Nor does any writer. The only real answer is to drink way too much coffee and buy yourself a desk that doesn’t collapse when you beat your head against it.

Douglas Adams

It is perfectly okay to write garbage — as long as you edit brilliantly.

C. J. Cherryh

Thank your readers and the critics who praise you, and then ignore them. Write for the most intelligent, wittiest, wisest audience in the universe: Write to please yourself.

Harlan Ellison

A blank piece of paper is God’s way of telling us how hard it to be God.