Quotes About Punctuation

To take so much punctuation in one hit initially sounds audacious, but perhaps the thief thought no one would notice as most readers never get that far into Ulysses—you will recall the theft of chapter sixty-two from Moby-Dick, where no one noticed?

In music, the punctuation is absolutely strict, the bars and rests are absolutely defined. But our punctuation cannot be quite strict, because we have to relate it to the audience. In other words we are continually changing the score.

I've always been a word guy, I like weird words and I like American slang and all that and words that are no longer being used… I like to drag them out of the box and wave them around… this is an interesting one, it's amazing how in addition to punctuation just a little pause in the wrong place can just completely transform the meaning of something.

The Colon key on my keyboard doesn't work when I press down the shift button. Does anyone know of a good Colon cleanser that can help me get my shift together.

The proper use of commas is often more art than science.

I'm no more than a comma in life. I who am a colon. Thou, thou art my exclamation.

There's nothing in this breathing world so gratifying as an artfully placed semicolon.

When it was time to write, and he took his pen in his hand, he never thought of consequences; he thought of style. I wonder why I ever bothered with sex, he thought; there's nothing in this breathing world so gratifying as an artfully placed semicolon.

Sometimes you get a glimpse of a semicolon coming, a few lines farther on, and it is like climbing a steep path through woods and seeing a wooden bench just at a bend in the road ahead, a place where you can expect to sit for a moment, catching your breath.

They used to be particularly hideous if they'd recently won a literary prize. Their dialogue was so powerful and impenetrable it didn't require punctuation! So naturally they didn't require permission to slip-slide their hairy hands over the body of a young writer of genre fiction. In their minds, Frances virtually owed them sex in return for her unseemly mass-market sales of "airport trash.

I realized that my kisses with Dane had become a form of punctuation, the quotations or the hasty dash at the end of a conversation

Grammar includes all the principles that guide the structure of sentences and paragraphs: syntax-the flow of language; usage-how we use words in different situations; and rules-predetermined boundaries and patterns that govern language in a particular society. Mechanics, on the other hand, are ways we punctuate whatever we are trying to say in our writing: punctuation, capitalization, paragraphing, formatting.

I work through life with commas. I don't even know, do you have parentheticals?

If we do away with semi-colons, parentheses and much else, we will lose all music, nuance and subtlety in communication - and end up shouting at one another in block capitals.

I hold that the parentheses are by far the most important parts of a non-business letter.

I like commas.

The key to a successful relationship isn't just in the words, it's in the choice of punctuation. When you're in love with someone, a well-placed question mark can be the difference between bliss and disaster, and a deeply respected period or a cleverly inserted ellipsis can prevent all kinds of exclamations.

The buildings line the canals like long sentences __ each house a word, each window a letter, each gap a punctuation.

It was cool to see reading become such a transparent act–it was as if her face had a different expression for each punctuation mark, and when there was dialogue you could see her actually listening to it in her head.

You expect death to bring some new form of punctuation, but there it is: one small gasp. Period.

The word love was replaced by a heart shape I'm guessing they'll put on the typewriter keyboard any day now, right beside the exclamation point.

Father raised his hands. Gentlemen, gentlemen,please! he interjected. I would like to remind you there is freedom of practice in this country. Three apoplectic faces turned to him. Yes! Prac tice --singular! the wise men screa,ed in unison. Three index fingers, like punctuation marks, jumped to attention in the air to emphasize their point.

It is from his grandmother that Henry learns that punctuation can be a weapon. With a comma you can hurt someone.

Here is an appropriate use of the exclamation mark: The last thing he expected when the elevator door opened was the snarling tiger that leapt at him. "Ahhhhh!" ... In almost all situations that do not involve immediate physical danger or great surprise, you should think twice before using an exclamation mark. If you have thought twice and the exclamation mark is still there, think about it three times, or however many times it takes until you delete it.