What is your favorite sentence you’ve ever written?
I have written more than three million words that have been published during my forty years of toiling happily as a writer. Assuming, for mathematical simplicity, thirty words apiece, I have written one hundred thousand sentences, and at one time or another each was a favorite in that each combines rhythm, balance, cohesion, and clear meaning. Examples (source):
1. Writing, in its essence, is primarily an exercise in discovering, conveying, cleansing, and clarifying our thoughts; it is how we watch ourselves think. (The Power of Being Articulate)
2. The methodical, evolving process of writing actually forces new thoughts to emerge from our minds, allowing us to make sense of our surroundings, our lives, and, on a smaller scale, the document that we are composing at the moment. (The Power of Writing Well)
2. I doubt that anybody in business of any sort or size could have missed the inflammatory headlines and sordid tales of corporate malfeasance and demise that sensationalized the business press since the mid nineties. (The Power of Dignity)
4. He lived in a seat of social and political exile, determined to preserve the prejudices and snobberies of what he felt was the only decent culture worth preserving: his. (Divorce Can Be Such Sweet Sorrow)
5. I would be first in line for an honorary doctorate in bullshit if, by some stretch of academic chutzpa, it were tendered by any of the world’s great universities. (Bigshots’ Bull*!@#)
6. I love the image of being a writer, the image of being offbeat, unconventional, a bit drunk, and a free and disheveled spirit.
