Alain de Botton Quote
Every writer is obliged to create his own language, as every violinist is obliged to create his own tone…. I don’t mean to say that I like original writers who write badly. I prefer—and perhaps it’s a weakness—those who write well. But they begin to write well only on condition that they’re original, that they create their own language. Correctness, perfection of style do exist, but on the other side of originality, after having gone through all the faults, not this side. Correctness this side—discreet emotion, smiling good nature, most abominable of all years—doesn’t exist. The only way to defend language is to attack it, yes, yes, Madame Straus!
Every writer is obliged to create his own language, as every violinist is obliged to create his own tone…. I don’t mean to say that I like original writers who write badly. I prefer—and perhaps it’s a weakness—those who write well. But they begin to write well only on condition that they’re original, that they create their own language. Correctness, perfection of style do exist, but on the other side of originality, after having gone through all the faults, not this side. Correctness this side—discreet emotion, smiling good nature, most abominable of all years—doesn’t exist. The only way to defend language is to attack it, yes, yes, Madame Straus!
Related Quotes
About Alain de Botton
He co-founded The School of Life in 2008 and Living Architecture in 2009. In 2015, he was awarded "The Fellowship of Schopenhauer", an annual writers' award from the Melbourne Writers Festival, for that work.