In my later years I have sought to become simpler, straighter and purer in my handling of the language. I've had many writing heroes, writers who have influenced me. Of the ones still alive, I can think of E.B. White. I certainly admire the pure, crystal stream of his prose. When I was very young as a sportswriter I knowingly and unashamedly imitated others. I had a series of heroes who would delight me for a while and I'd imitate them--Damon Runyon, Westbrook Pegler, Joe Williams.
Ninety feet between the bases is the nearest thing to perfection that man has yet achieved. - Red Smith
Ninety feet between the bases is the nearest thing to perfection that man has yet achieved.
- Red Smith
For 350 years we have been taught that reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man and writing an exact man. Football's place is to add a patin… - Red Smith
For 350 years we have been taught that reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man and writing an exact man. Football's place is to add a patin…
Writing is very much like bricklaying. You learn to put one brick on top of another and spread the mortar so thick. - Red Smith
Writing is very much like bricklaying. You learn to put one brick on top of another and spread the mortar so thick.
As a ballplayer, (Dizzy) Dean was a natural phenomenon, like the Grand Canyon or the Great Barrier Reef. Nobody ever taught him baseball and he never… - Red Smith
As a ballplayer, (Dizzy) Dean was a natural phenomenon, like the Grand Canyon or the Great Barrier Reef. Nobody ever taught him baseball and he never…
Today's game is always different from yesterday's game. - Red Smith
Today's game is always different from yesterday's game.
My best girl is dead. - Red Smith
My best girl is dead.
Any sportswriter who thinks the world is no bigger than the outfield fence in not only a bad citizen, but also a lousy sportswriter. - Red Smith
Any sportswriter who thinks the world is no bigger than the outfield fence in not only a bad citizen, but also a lousy sportswriter.
I have known writers who paid no damned attention whatever to the rules of grammar and rhetoric and somehow made the language behave for them. - Red Smith
I have known writers who paid no damned attention whatever to the rules of grammar and rhetoric and somehow made the language behave for them.
I think it's the real world. The people we're writing about in professional sports, they're suffering and living and dying and loving and trying to m… - Red Smith
I think it's the real world. The people we're writing about in professional sports, they're suffering and living and dying and loving and trying to m…
Login to join the discussion
Login to join the discussion