Looking good and dressing well is a necessity. Having a purpose in life is not.

Looking good and dressing well is a necessity. Having a purpose in life is not.

Style is a simple way of saying complicated things

Style is a simple way of saying complicated things

Style is a magic wand, and turns everything to gold that it touches

Style is a magic wand, and turns everything to gold that it touches

Create your own visual style... let it be unique for yourself and yet identifiable for others.

Create your own visual style... let it be unique for yourself and yet identifiable for others.

And, after all, it is style alone by which posterity will judge
of a great work, for an author read more

And, after all, it is style alone by which posterity will judge
of a great work, for an author can have nothing truly his own but
his style.

I discovered that what's really important for a creator isn't what we vaguely define as inspiration or even what it read more

I discovered that what's really important for a creator isn't what we vaguely define as inspiration or even what it is we want to say, recall, regret, or rebel against. No, what's important is the way we say it. Art is all about craftsmanship. Others can interpret craftsmanship as style if they wish. Style is what unites memory or recollection, ideology, sentiment, nostalgia, presentiment, to the way we express all that. It's not what we say but how we say it that matters.

A chaste and lucid style is indicative of the same personal
traits in the author.

A chaste and lucid style is indicative of the same personal
traits in the author.

Expression is the dress of thought, and still
Appears more decent as more suitable;
A vile conceit read more

Expression is the dress of thought, and still
Appears more decent as more suitable;
A vile conceit in pompous words express'd,
Is like a clown in regal purple dress'd.

When Croft's "Life of Dr. Young" was spoken of as a good
imitation of Dr. Johnson's style, "No, no," read more

When Croft's "Life of Dr. Young" was spoken of as a good
imitation of Dr. Johnson's style, "No, no," said he, "it is not a
good imitation of Johnson; it has all his pomp without his force;
it has all the nodosities of the oak, without its strength; it
has all the contortions of the sibyl, without the inspiration."