"You thunder and lightning too much; the..." - Quote by Mark Twain
You thunder and lightning too much; the reader ceases to get under the bed, by and by.
More by Mark Twain
“Humor must not professedly teach and it must not professedly preach, but it must do both if it would live forever.”
“the size of a misfortune is not determinable by an outsider’s measurement of it but only by the measurements applied to it by the person specially affected by it.”
“I do love compliments, yet I'm often embarrassed to say what I think to the person when I get a compliment. I so often feel that they have not gone far enough.”
More on Writing
“Gonzo journalism is a style of reporting based on William Faulkner's idea that the best fiction is far more true than any kind of journalism.”
“Henry James would have been vastly improved as a novelist by a few whiffs of the Chicago stockyard.”
“Some stories or passages are more difficult and demand more fussing with than others, but, in general, I'm a two-draft writer rather than a six-draft writer, or whatever.”
More on Rhetoric
“Rhetoric is a poor substitute for action, and we have trusted only to rhetoric. If we are really to be a great nation, we must not merely talk; we must act big.”
“If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time - a tremendous whack.”
“One of our defects as a nation is a tendency to use what have been called "weasel words."”