It takes me six months to do a story. I think it out and then write it sentence by sentence—no first draft. I can't write five words but that I chang… - Dorothy Parker

Dotty had
Great Big
Visions of
Quietude.
Dotty saw an
Ad, and it
Left her
Flat.
Dotty had a
Great Big
Snifter of Cyanide.
And that (said Dotty)
Is that.

Almost overnight, Dorothy Parker was transformed from a woman of letters into a gin-soaked quote machine, with a martini in one hand and a dagger in the other. <small>p. xiii</small>

If you have any young friends who aspire to become writers, the second greatest favor you can do them is to present them with copies of The Elements of Style. The first greatest, of course, is to shoot them now, while they're happy.