Richard Lederer Quotes
Most popular Richard Lederer Quotes
Language is a window through which we look at the world.
Punctuation marks do for the reader what road signs and traffic signals do for the driver.
Words are such an integral part of our consciousness that we believe they have always existed, like stones and grass and bushes. But this is not true.
Asking a writer to account for the genesis of his or her ideas is as futile as asking a spider to explain the source of its web and the method of its construction.
Puns are a three-way circus of words: words clowning, words teetering on tightropes, words swinging from tent-tops, words thrusting their heads into the mouths of lions.
Like people, words are born, grow up, get married, have children, and even die. They may be very old, like man and wife and home. They may be very young, like Sudoku and ginormous.
My whole life I have feasted on words—ogled their appetizing shapes, colors, and textures; swished them around in my mouth; lingered over their many tastes; let their juices run down my chin.
For me, writing is like throwing a Frisbee. You can play Frisbee catch with yourself, but it's repetitious and not much fun. Better it is to fling to others, to extend yourself across a distance.
Paradox is a particularly powerful device to ensnare truth because it concisely illuminates the contradictions that are at the very heart of our lives. It engages our hearts and minds because, beyond its figurative employment, paradox has always been at the center of the human condition.
