The Da Vinci Code may well be the only novel ever written that begins with the word 'renowned'. . . I think what enabled the first word to tip me off that I was about to spend a number of hours in the company of one of the worst prose stylists in the history of literature was this. Putting curriculum vitae details into complex modifiers on proper names or definite descriptions is what you do in journalistic stories about deaths; you just don't do it in describing an event in a narrative. . . Why did I keep reading? Because London Heathrow is a long way from San Francisco International.
For the year after I left government service, I worked as a consultant to the Republican National Committee because the lawyers advised that was the proper way for me to comply with ethics regulations and continue to advise the President.
I'm glad you're still upright, Charles, and the only reason you are is because she didn't have any silver. She'd have staked you right and proper otherwise. She has a tendency to shrivel someone first and then introduce herself afterwards. " "That's uncalled for!" I said, insulted at the suggestion that I was homicidal. "Right. " Bones let that go. "Kitten, this is my best mate, Charles, but you can call him Spade. Charles, this is Cat, the woman I've been telling you about. You can see for yourself that everything I've said is. . . an understatement.
Very often we write down a sentence too early, then another too late; what we have to do is write it down at the proper time, otherwise it's lost.
We deny the right of any portion of the species to decide for another portion what is and what is not their 'proper sphere. ' The proper sphere for all human beings is the largest and highest which they are able to attain to.
Pure air, sunlight, abstemiousness, rest, exercise, proper diet, the use of water, trust in Divine power-these are the true remedies.
Few authors understand themselves, and a proper reader must not only understand his author but also be able to see beyond him
Because a thing is difficult for you, do not therefore suppose it to be beyond mortal power. On the contrary, if anything is possible and proper for man to do, assume that it must fall within your own capacity.
The orthodox environmental theories [of heredity] have been accepted not because they have stood up under proper scientific investigations, but because they harmonize so well with our democratic belief in human equality.
The proper definition of a man is an animal that writes letters.
The mind which can totally and inanely forget its work and obligations is often also the mind which can, at the proper time, give them the fullest attention.
As women began to challenge their own internalized views of a woman's proper place, their desire and demand for equal status and free choice began to grow exponentially.
It is justly considered as the greatest excellency of art to imitate nature; but it is necessary to distinguish those parts of nature which are most proper for imitation: greater care is still required in representing life, which is so often discoloured by passion or deformed by wickedness. If the world be promiscuously described, I cannot see of what use it can be to read the account; or why it may not be as safe to turn the eye immediately upon mankind, as upon a mirror which shows all that presents itself without discrimination.
Wow this place is really big isn't it? They must do proper stuff here, like opera and all that. . . shite.
There is only one proper way to wear a beautiful dress: to forget you are wearing it.
I was my own woman. The next step was to find the proper sort of man.
The proper use of our intelligence and knowledge is to effect changes from within to develop a good heart.
Getting it off the ground is one thing because it has to do with finding the proper people and the financing, but finding the subject is another thing and this is always for me the most difficult part.
To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work.
Audiences are very sophisticated and they know the nuts and bolts of the genre - certainly with horror more than others I think. But they attract lots of people, they're much derided as a genre but people go and see them and they're not all dumb. There's some very clever horror films. Stephen King gets a lot of flack for not being a proper writer because he's a horror writer, but I think he writes some brilliant books. I think it's wrong to just bin it before looking at it.