6 Quotes by The Economist

An oft-quoted statistic from the [United Nations] reports is that the amount of literature translated into Spanish in a single year exceeds the entire corpus of what has been translated into Arabic in 1,000 years.

Clarity of writing usually follows clarity of thought. So think what you want to say, then say it as simply as possible.

But that is the strange thing about the future. Nothing ages faster than yesterday’s dreams of tomorrow.

A lot of the people who read a bestselling novel, for example, do not read much other fiction. By contrast, the audience for an obscure novel is largely composed of people who read a lot. That means the least popular books are judged by people who have the highest standards, while the most popular are judged by people who literally do not know any better. An American who read just one book this year was disproportionately likely to have read ‘The Lost Symbol’, by Dan Brown. He almost certainly liked it.

Nobody needs to be described as silly: let your analysis show that he is.

Don’t be too didactic. Your writing shouldn’t teach someone, your story should.