The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter - 'tis the difference between the lightning-bug and the lightning.

The difference between the right word and almost the right word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug.

The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause.

To get the right word in the right place is a rare achievement. To condense the diffused light of a page of thought into the luminous flash of a single sentence, is worthy to rank as a prize composition just by itself...Anybody can have ideas--the difficulty is to express them without squandering a quire of paper on an idea that ought to be reduced to one glittering paragraph.

The trouble ain't that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain't distributed right.

I met Steve McQueen once. Well, met isn't really the right word.