Famous Mary Norris Quotes

  • The better the writer, the more complicated the dangler. – Mary Norris

    The better the writer, the more complicated the dangler.– Mary Norris

  • Was it an insult to be called a -œwoman writer-? Didn’t it have a taint of, say, the -œwoman driver-? – Mary Norris

    Was it an insult to be called a -œwoman writer-? Didn’t it have a taint of, say, the -œwoman driver-?– Mary Norris

  • So many things in language can never be known or settled or explained, except by custom. – Mary Norris

    So many things in language can never be known or settled or explained, except by custom.– Mary Norris

  • Nobody knows everything-”one of the pleasures of language is that there is always something new to learn-”and everybody makes mistakes. – Mary Norris

    Nobody knows everything-”one of the pleasures of language is that there is always something new to learn-”and everybody makes mistakes.– Mary Norris

  • You cannot legislate language. Prohibition never worked, right? Not for booze and not for sex and not for words. – Mary Norris

    You cannot legislate language. Prohibition never worked, right? Not for booze and not for sex and not for words.– Mary Norris

  • You cannot legislate language. Prohibition never worked, right? Not for booze and not for sex and not for words.– Mary Norris

  • If commas are open to interpretation, hyphens are downright Delphic. – Mary Norris

    If commas are open to interpretation, hyphens are downright Delphic.– Mary Norris

  • If commas are open to interpretation, hyphens are downright Delphic.– Mary Norris

  • Those extra letters dangling at the ends of words are the genitalia of grammar. – Mary Norris

    Those extra letters dangling at the ends of words are the genitalia of grammar.– Mary Norris