1. "Anybody can have ideas–the difficulty is to express them without squandering a quire of paper on an idea that ought to be reduced to one glittering paragraph."
2. "Great books are weighed and measured by their style and matter, and not the trimmings and shadings of their grammar."3. "As to the Adjective: when in doubt, strike it out."
4. "Don’t say the old lady screamed. Bring her on and let her scream."
5. "The more you explain it, the more I don’t understand it."
6. "Write without pay until somebody offers to pay."
7. “Use plain, simple language, short words and brief sentences. That is the way to write English--it is the modern way and the best way. Stick to it; don't let fluff and flowers and verbosity creep in.”
8. “Use good grammar.”
9. “Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please.”
10. “The characters in tale be so clearly defined that the reader can tell beforehand what each will do in a given emergency.”Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens was born November 30, 1835, Florida, MO, and died April 21, 1910, Redding, CT. Clemens wrote by his pen name Mark Twain, and was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He is best known for The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and many more. Twain is considered one of the great authors of American literature that brought to life American culture and perspective through his use of language. He is a true giant if literature and a legend in his own right.
