Quotessence
Home / Authors / Lynne Truss
Lynne Truss

Lynne Truss Quotes

Writer

Filter quotes by topic

AllPunctuationPeopleWorldIfsPersonsWayBookMeanUsedAttentionBlackGivingMannersShouldTextingThinkingWellsWritingYearsAbsolutes

Famous Lynne Truss Quotes

“A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air. "Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes towards the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife annual and tosses it over his shoulder. "I'm a panda," he says, at the door. "Look it up." The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation. Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves.”

PunctuationPandas
Book:Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation
Create image

“So the particular strengths of the colon are beginning to become clear. A colon is nearly always preceded by a complete sentence, and in its simplest usage it rather theatrically announces what is to come. Like a well-trained magician's assistant, it pauses slightly to give you time to get a bit worried, and then efficiently whisks away the cloth and reveals the trick complete.”

SentencesPunctuationMagic TricksSentenceColonMagic TrickColon UsageColon UseColonsPunctuation Metaphor
Book:Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation
Create image

“I mean, full stops are quite important, aren't they? Yet by contrast to the versatile apostrophe, they are stolid little chaps, to say the least. In fact one might dare to say that while the full stop is the lumpen male of the punctuation world (do one job at a time; do it well; forget about it instantly), the apostrophe is the frantically multi-tasking female, dotting hither and yon, and succumbing to burn-out from all the thankless effort.”

WorldWellsMeanLittlesImportantFactsMightJobsForgetEffortFemaleMalesDareContrastPunctuationBurn OutChapsVersatileThanklessMulti TaskingSuccumbing
Author:Lynne Truss
Create image

“It should come as no surprise that writers take an interest in punctuation. I have been told that the dying words of one famous 20th-century writer were, "I should have used fewer semicolons" - and although I have spent months fruitlessly trying to track down the chap responsible, I believe it none the less. If it turns out that no one actually did say this on their deathbed, I shall certainly save it up for my own.”

IfsShouldTryingBelieveHas BeensUsedTurnsI BelieveInterestMy OwnCenturyDyingMonthsShould HaveResponsibleSurpriseTrackFewer20th CenturyDeathbedPunctuationChaps
Author:Lynne Truss
Create image

“The rule is: the word 'it's' (with apostrophe) stands for 'it is' or 'it has'. If the word does not stand for 'it is' or 'it has' then what you require is 'its'. This is extremely easy to grasp. Getting your itses mixed up is the greatest solecism in the world of punctuation. No matter that you have a PhD and have read all of Henry James twice. If you still persist in writing, 'Good food at it's best', you deserve to be struck by lightning, hacked up on the spot and buried in an unmarked grave.”

IfsWorldWritingDoeStillsMatterEasyDeserveGravesSpotsBuriedLightningPersistGood FoodPunctuationHackedPhds
Author:Lynne Truss
Create image

“We have a language that is full of ambiguities; we have a way of expressing ourselves that is often complex and elusive, poetic and modulated; all our thoughts can be rendered with absolute clarity if we bother to put the right dots and squiggles between the words in the right places. Proper punctuation is both the sign and the cause of clear thinking. If it goes, the degree of intellectual impoverishment we face is unimaginable.”

IfsThinkingWayFacesLanguageCausesClearDegreesIntellectualAbsolutesComplexesClarityBotherPoeticOur ThoughtsAmbiguityRight PlaceElusiveDotsUnimaginablePunctuationClear Thinking
Author:Lynne Truss
Create image

“To those who care about punctuation, a sentence such as "Thank God its Friday" (without the apostrophe) rouses feelings not only of despair but of violence. The confusion of the possessive "its" (no apostrophe) with the contractive "it's" (with apostrophe) is an unequivocal signal of illiteracy and sets off a Pavlovian "kill" response in the average stickler.”

WritingFeelingsCareViolenceDespairResponseAverageSentencesConfusionThank GodSignalsWho CaresFridayPunctuationIlliteracyPossessiveUnequivocal
Author:Lynne Truss
Create image

“As someone who sends texts messages more or less non-stop, I enjoy one particular aspect of texting more than anything else: that it is possible to sit in a crowded railway carriage laboriously spelling out quite long words in full, and using an enormous amount of punctuation, without anyone being aware of how outrageously subversive I am being.”

LongEnjoyParticularAmountMessagesAspectEnormousCrowdedSubversiveSpellingCarriagesPunctuationRailwayTextingNon StopText MessageLong Words
Author:Lynne Truss
Create image