# Quotes about literary style - Quotes: 9 - Authors: 9 - Broader topic: [Quotes about writing](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/writing.md) - Topic page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/literary-style - JSON version (same data): https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/literary-style.json ## Quotes > Where is good English to be found? Not among those who might be expected to write well professionally. Schoolmasters seldom write well: it is difficult for any teacher to avoid either pomposity or, in the effort not to be pompous, a jocular conversational looseness. The clergy suffer from much the same occupational disability: they can seldom decide whether to use "the language of the market-place" or Biblical rhetoric. Men of letters usually feel impelled to cultivate an individual style — less because they feel sure of themselves as individuals than because they wish to carve a niche for themselves in literature; and nowadays an individual style usually means merely a peculiar range of inaccuracies, ambiguities, logical weaknesses and stylistic extravagancies. Trained journalists use a flat, over-simplified style, based on a study of what sells a paper and what does not, which is inadequate for most literary purposes. [Robert Graves](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-graves.md) · [The Reader Over Your Shoulder](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-graves/the-reader-over-your-shoulder.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-graves/the-reader-over-your-shoulder/where-is-good.md) Topics: [writing](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/writing.md), [literary style](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/literary-style.md) > All I can do is turn a phrase until it catches the light. There was a time when I got hot under the collar if the critics said I had nothing new to say. Now I realise that they had a point. My field is the self-evident. Everything I say is obvious, although I like to think that some of the obvious things I have said were not so obvious until I said them. [Clive James](https://www.leafyquotes.com/clive-james.md) · [May Week Was In June](https://www.leafyquotes.com/clive-james/may-week-was-in-june.md) · p. 241 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/clive-james/may-week-was-in-june/all-i-can.md) Topics: [writing](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/writing.md), [literary style](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/literary-style.md) > The hallmark of the minor artist is to be obsessed with style as an end in itself. [Robert Hughes](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-hughes.md) · [Nothing If Not Critical](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-hughes/nothing-if-not-critical.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-hughes/nothing-if-not-critical/the-hallmark-of-the.md) Topics: [art](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/art.md), [literary style](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/literary-style.md) > Style is not something applied. It is something that permeates. It is of the nature of that in which it is found, whether the poem, the manner of a god, the bearing of a man. It is not a dress. [Wallace Stevens](https://www.leafyquotes.com/wallace-stevens.md) · [Opus Posthumous](https://www.leafyquotes.com/wallace-stevens/opus-posthumous.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/wallace-stevens/opus-posthumous/style-is-not.md) Topics: [literary style](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/literary-style.md) > Style is but the faintly contemptible vessel in which the bitter liquid is recommended to the world. [Thornton Wilder](https://www.leafyquotes.com/thornton-wilder.md) · [The Bridge of San Luis Rey](https://www.leafyquotes.com/thornton-wilder/the-bridge-of-san-luis-rey.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/thornton-wilder/the-bridge-of-san-luis-rey/style-is-but.md) Topics: [literary style](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/literary-style.md) > We say: he has no talent, only tone. But tone is precisely what cannot be invented — we're born with it. Tone is an inherited grace, the privilege some of us have of making our organic pulsations felt — tone is more than talent, it is its essence. [Emil Cioran](https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran.md) · [The Trouble With Being Born](https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran/the-trouble-with-being-born.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran/the-trouble-with-being-born/we-say-he-has.md) Topics: [talent](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/talent.md), [literary style](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/literary-style.md) > One man’s style must not be the rule of another’s. [Jane Austen](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jane-austen.md) · [Emma](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jane-austen/emma.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jane-austen/emma/one-mans-style.md) Topics: [individualism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/individualism.md), [literary style](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/literary-style.md) > Sheer bitchiness can be a sort of style. [Erica Jong](https://www.leafyquotes.com/erica-jong.md) · [Fear of Flying](https://www.leafyquotes.com/erica-jong/fear-of-flying.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/erica-jong/fear-of-flying/sheer-bitchiness-can.md) Topics: [irony](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony.md), [literary style](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/literary-style.md) > You can’t throw too much style into a miracle. [Mark Twain](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain.md) · [A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain/a-connecticut-yankee-in-king-arthurs-court.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain/a-connecticut-yankee-in-king-arthurs-court/you-cant-throw.md) Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [miracles](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/miracles.md), [literary style](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/literary-style.md)