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Punctuation Quotes

Browse 162 quotes about Punctuation.

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Punctuation Quotes

“He stood in the doorway of her office. He was, as always, the consummate scoundrel. He leaned against the doorframe, smiling—almost smirking—at her, as if he knew how rapidly her heart had started beating. If that was how they were going to do this… She simply raised an eyebrow in his direction. “Oh,” she said with a sniff. “It’s you.” “You’re not fooling anyone,” he said. She could feel the corner of her mouth twitch up. Last time she’d seen him, he’d kissed her so thoroughly she had not yet recovered. “I’m not?” “I heard it most distinctly,” he told her. “You might have said ‘It’s you,’ but there was a distinct exclamation mark at the end. In fact, I think there were two.” “Oh, dear.” Free looked down, fluttering her eyelashes demurely. “Is my punctuation showing once more?” His eyes darkened and he took a step into her office. “Don’t hide it on my account,” he growled. “You have the most damnably beautiful punctuation that I have ever seen.”

LoveSeductionPunctuation
Author:Courtney Milan - The Suffragette Scandal
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“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
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“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
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“As I work over clauses and commas, I understand that rhythm and cadence have little connection to import, but they should carry the reader on a pleasurable journey. Sentences can be long, three or more complete clauses dancing together, or two clauses with one leaning on the other, or an added phrase of only a few syllables. Sentences and paragraphs are as various as human beings.”

WritingLanguageStructureSentencesGrammarSyllablesPunctuationClausesParagraphs
Book:Essays After Eighty
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“There is an underlying rhythm to all text. Sentences crashing fall like the waves of the sea, and work unconsciously on the reader. Punctuation is the music of language. As a conductor can influence the experience of the song by manipulating its rhythm, so can punctuation influence the reading experience, bring out the best (or worst) in a text. By controlling the speed of a text, punctuation dictates how it should be read. A delicate world of punctuation lives just beneath the surface of your work, like a world of microorganisms living in a pond. They are missed by the naked eye, but if you use a microscope you will find a exist, and that the pond is, in fact, teeming with life. This book will teach you to become sensitive to this habitat. The more you do, the greater the likelihood of your crafting a finer work in every respect. Conversely the more you turn a blind eye, the greater the likelihood of your creating a cacophonous text and of your being misread.”

PunctuationWriting CraftWriting BooksSelf Editing
Book:A Dash of Style: The Art and Mastery of Punctuation
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“Today, I learned, the comma, this is, a, comma (,) a period, with, a tail, Miss Kinnian, says its, importent, because, it makes writing, better, she said, somebody, could lose, a lot, of money, if a comma, isnt in, the right, place, I got, some money, that I, saved from, my job, and what, the foundation, pays me, but not, much and, I dont, see how, a comma, keeps, you from, losing it, But, she says, everybody, uses commas, so Ill, use them, too,,,,”

GrammarPunctuationComma
Book:Flowers for Algernon
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“From the gardener's point of view, November can be the worst month to be faced: Nature is winding things down, the air is cold, skies are gray, but usually the final mark of punctuation to the year as yet to arrive - the snow; snow that covers all in the garden and marks a mind-set for the end of a year's activity. There is little to do outside except to wait for longer days in the new year and the joys of coming holidays.”

YearsMindLittlesEndsJoyWaitingViewsAirSkyWorstMonthsColdActivityGardenMarkFinalsPoint Of ViewSnowHolidayGrayNew YearGardenerNovemberMind SetPunctuationLonger Days
Author:H. Peter Loewer
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“The one affectation I have forced on the publisher... are my apostrophe-free ellisions. Because I write my scripts to read myself, I dont spell 'don't' with an apostrophe. I spell it 'dont'. We all know the word and it seems foolish to put in an extraneous apostrophe. Punctuation marks are devices we use to make the meaning of sentences clear. There is nothing confusing about a word like 'dont' printed without an apostrophe to indicate an omitted letter.”

KnowsWritingUseSeemsClearLettersMarkScriptsSentencesFoolishDevicesSpellsPublishersConfusingPrintedPunctuationPunctuation Marks
Author:Andy Rooney
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“Stupid word, that. Period. In America it means 'full stop,' like in punctuation. That's stupid as well. A period isn't a full stop. It's a new beginning. I don't mean all that creativity, life-giving force, earth-mother stuff, I mean it's a new beginning to the month, relief that you're not pregnant, when you don't have to have a child.”

GivingWellsMeanChildrenEarthAmericaMotherForceStuffCreativityStupidMonthsPeriodsReliefPregnantNew BeginningsPunctuation
Author:Michelene Wandor
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“This sucks on so many levels." Dialogue from "Jason X" Rare for a movie to so frankly describe itself. "Jason X" sucks on the levels of storytelling, character development, suspense, special effects, originality, punctuation, neatness and aptness of thought.”

CharacterLevelsSpecialEffectsDevelopmentDialogueStorytellingSuspenseOriginalityJasonCharacter DevelopmentPunctuationSpecial EffectsNeatness
Book:Roger Ebert's Movie Yearbook 2005
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“When I'm writing a play I hear it like music. I use the same indications that a composer does for duration. There's a difference, I tell my students, between a semi-colon and a period. A difference in duration. And we have all these wonderful things, we use commas and underlining and all the wonderful punctuation things we can use in the same way a composer uses them in music. And we can indicate, as specifically as a composer, the way we want our piece to sound.”

WayWantWritingDoePlayUseSoundDifferencesPiecesWonderfulStudentsPeriodsComposerWonderful ThingsIndicationDurationPunctuationPlaywriting
Author:Edward Albee
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“[Mary Wortley Montagu] wrote more letters, with fewer punctuation marks, than any Englishwoman of her day; and her nephew, the fourth Baron Rokeby, nearly blinded himself in deciphering the two volumes of undated correspondence which were printed in 1810. Two more followed in 1813, after which the gallant Baron either died at his post or was smitten with despair; for sixty-eight cases of letters lay undisturbed ... 'Les morts n'écrivent point,' said Madame de Maintenon hopefully; but of what benefit is this inactivity, when we still continue to receive their letters?”

SaidStillsTwoCasesDespairBenefitsLettersMarkDiedLaysEightHopefullyPostsFewerFourthMarySixtyVolumePrintedBlindedPunctuationCorrespondenceNephewGallantInactivitySmittenPunctuation Marks
Author:Agnes Repplier
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