Top 10 Quotes & Sayings by Roy Peter Clark

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American writer Roy Peter Clark.
Last updated on September 19, 2024.
Roy Peter Clark

Roy Peter Clark is an American writer, editor, and a writing coach. He is also senior scholar and vice president of the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, a journalism think-tank in St. Petersburg, Florida, and is the founder of the National Writers Workshop. Clark has appeared on several radio and television talk shows, speaking about ethics in journalism and other writing issues.

Having the urge to write is one thing; acting on it is another.
A teacher of mine once said there are no true synonyms.
Everyone should read, we say, but we act as if only those with special talent should write. — © Roy Peter Clark
Everyone should read, we say, but we act as if only those with special talent should write.
Riffing on language will create wonderful effects you never intended. Which leads me to this writing advice: 'Always take credit for good stuff you didn't intend, because you'll be getting plenty of criticism in your career for bad stuff you didn't mean either.'
If a period is a stop sign, then what kind of traffic flow is created by other marks? The comma is a speed bump; the semicolon is what a driver education teacher calls a “rolling stop”; the parenthetical expression is a detour; the colon is a flashing yellow light that announces something important up ahead; the dash is a tree branch in the road.
Without a serious study of journalism, there can be no understanding of citizenship, democracy, or community.
For what good is freedom of expression if you lack the means to express yourself?
Writing is not magic. It’s a craft, a process, a set of steps. As with any process, things sometimes break down. Even in a good story, the writer runs into problems. So the act of writing always includes problem solving.
I may have grown up in the Age of Aquarius, but I'm growing old in the Age of the Acronym.
Express your most powerful thought in the shortest sentence.
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