Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Alejandro Plaza

Quote by Alejandro Plaza

Author

Alejandro Plaza

Browse famous quotes and profile details for Alejandro Plaza. more

You May Also Like

“If you are writing for an educated audience and, to take an example, you use the phrase mutatis mutandis, you are not showing off—you are communicating. You are using words to do what words are supposed to do. It reminds me of the time that someone complained to William F. Buckley about all the unusual words that he would employ. His reply was that the words were not unusual to him. Words are there for a reason, and foreign phrases can often do the trick that more homey phrases cannot. But if you are blogging about your adventures as a shopping mom, and you write about your purchase of a 48-pack of corn dogs at Costco, and you describe them as de provenance étrangère, it had better be a joke. Unusual words or phrases (foreign and domestic) are a barrier to understanding, unless the point is to communicate to the reader that you know something they don't. Then they understand what you are doing quite well.”

“I revere a kind of sanctity in language and that reverence stands in place of an aesthetic. I wouldn't even make the case that I'm a writer; it's just what I put in the field if someone asks. It's easier than saying what I actually am, which is best expressed as what I actually do, which functionally a kind of worship. I think there are configurations of words that have power. I think they can be arranged in such a way as to modify the operation of the mind. I'm not even saying I succeed at this. I'm saying that seeking these configurations is the only thing I know how to do.”

“The way I heard it was in the old days long time ago they had this Scalp Society for warriors who killed or touched dead enemies. They had things they must do otherwise K'oo'ko wouldn't haunt their dreams with her great fangs and everything would be endangered. Maybe the rain wouldn't come or the deer would go away. That's why they had things they must do The flute and dancing blue cornmeal and hair-washing. All these things they had to do.”