Camera Angles for Writers

“Grammar is a piano I play by ear, since I seem to have been out of school the year the rules were mentioned. All I know about grammar is its infinite power. To shift the structure of a sentence alters the meaning of that sentence, as definitely and inflexibly as the position of a camera alters the meaning of the object photographed.”

 

 —Joan Didion, writer, “Why I Write,” NYTimes, Dec. 5, 1976. Image: Julian Wasser, 1970

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Editorial Comment: My grammar is often out of focus.

 

 

PeezPIX

 

Hollyhock

 

 

 

 

 

 

In February’s Senior News . . . All You Need Is Love.

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“I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard