#sentence

There exists, for everyone, a sentence - a series of words - that has the power to destroy you. Another sentence exists, another series of words, that could heal you. If you're lucky you will get the second, but you can be certain of getting the first. ↗

— Philip K. Dick

#magik #power-of-words #first-sentence

A screaming comes across the sky. ↗

— Thomas Pynchon

#first-sentence

It was a small town by a small river and a small lake in a small northern part of a Midwest state. There wasn't so much wilderness around you couldn't see the town. But on the other hand there wasn't so much town you couldn't see and feel and touch and smell the wilderness. The town was full of trees. And dry grass and dead flowers now that autumn was here. And full of fences to walk on and sidewalks to skate on and a large ravine to tumble in and yell across. And the town was full of... Boys. And it was the afternoon of Halloween. And all the houses shut against a cool wind. And the town was full of cold sunlight. But suddenly, the day was gone. Night came out from under each tree and spread. ↗

— Ray Bradbury

#first-sentence

Each letter of the alphabet is a steadfast loyal soldier in a great army of words, sentences, paragraphs, and stories. One letter falls, and the entire language falters. ↗

— Vera Nazarian

#grammar #language #languages #letter #literacy

And I don't want to begin something, I don't want to write that first sentence until all the important connections in the novel are known to me. As if the story has already taken place, and it's my responsibility to put it in the right order to tell it to you. ↗

— John Irving

#begin #connections #first #i #important

I don't begin a novel or a screenplay until I know the ending. And I don't mean only that I have to know what happens. I mean that I have to hear the actual sentences. I have to know what atmosphere the words convey. ↗

— John Irving

#atmosphere #begin #convey #ending #happens

Certain brief sentences are peerless in their ability to give one the feeling that nothing remains to be said. ↗

— Jean Rostand

#brief #certain #feeling #give #nothing

I still understand a few words in life, but I no longer think they make a sentence. ↗

— Jean Rostand

#i #life #longer #make #sentence

I try to sit down at the typewriter four times a day, even if it's only five minutes, and write three sentences. ↗

— Roger Zelazny

#down #even #five #four #i

So for me the approach has become to go into a story not really sure of what I want to say, try to find some little seed crystal of interest, a sentence or an image or an idea, and as much as possible divest myself of any deep ideas about it. And then by this process of revision, mysteriously it starts to accrete meanings as you go. ↗

— George Saunders

#any #approach #become #crystal #deep