Wrong Words Quotes

• Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right, greed works.

  Oliver Stone

  Movie, Great Year, Greed

  "Wall Street". www.imdb.com. 1987.

  15 Copy quote

  Show source

• Greed, for lack of a better word, is good.

  Michael Douglas

  Movie, Great Year, Greed

  22 Copy quote

• I find that by putting things in writing I can understand them and see them a little more objectively. ... For words are merely tools and if you use the right ones you can actually put even your life in order, if you don't lie to yourself and use the wrong words.

  Hunter S. Thompson

  Lying, Writing, Order

  "The Proud Highway : The Fear and Loathing Letters" by Hunter S. Thompson, Volume I, (p. 133), 1997.

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• Freedom is...the right to write the wrong words.

  Patti Smith

  Freedom, Writing

  19 Copy quote

• The wrong word is like a lie jammed inside the story.

  Grace Paley

  Lying, Stories

  7 Copy quote

• I'm a very good thinker, but I sometimes grab the wrong word. I say something I didn't think through adequately. I mean, I don't type my speeches, then sit up there and read them off the teleprompter, you know. I wing it.

  Ted Turner

  Mean, Thinking, Wings

  "Ted's tears". Interview with Oliver Burkeman, www.theguardian.com. June 18, 2002.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Writing is easy. All you have to do is cross out the wrong words.

  Mark Twain

  Writing, Confusing, Easy

  28 Copy quote

• That's the problem in politics. One wrong word and it's over.

  Donald Trump

  Problem

  Source: www.businessinsider.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Any word you have to hunt for in a thesaurus is the wrong word. There are no exceptions to this rule.

  Stephen King

  Writing, Thought Provoking, Thesaurus

  12 Copy quote

• There's always a moment when you start to fall out of love, whether it's with a person or an idea or a cause, even if it's one you only narrate to yourself years after the event: a tiny thing, a wrong word, a false note, which means that things can never be quite the same again.

  Douglas Adams

  Falling In Love, Mean, Years

  Douglas Adams (2009). “Mostly Harmless”, p.246, Pan Macmillan

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• I think "immoral" is probably the wrong word to use...I prefer the word "unethical."

  Ivan Boesky

  Funny, Stupid, Thinking

  "Den of Thieves". Book by James B. Stewart, 1992.

  26 Copy quote

  Show source

• When I was younger, I didn't know who a lot of those people were because I couldn't watch any of their movies. I actually get way more starstruck now. I think starstruck is the wrong word - I get overly enthusiastic about who I work with.

  Liana Liberato

  Thinking, People, Watches

  Interview with Rachel Small, www.interviewmagazine.com. June 5, 2014.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• You're here to sweat. This program is live. There's about one thousand million people watching you. So, you remember - one wrong word, one foolish gesture and your whole career could go down in flames. Hold that thought and have a nice night.

  Paul Hogan

  Nice, Night, Flames

  Remarks at the 59th Academy Awards (On Oscar Acceptance Etiquette), delivered 30 March 1987, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Los Angeles

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Sometimes just being an immigrant, I read things the wrong way, and that can be funny. Or I'll put the emphasis on the wrong word, and that can be funny. I have an affinity for comedy because I like to watch them. It's an honor to make comedies because I love being able to pop something into the DVD player and laugh. I love doing it.

  John Cho

  Player, Love Is, Dvds

  Source: collider.com

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• The wrong words are impossible when there are no words.

  Barbara Kingsolver

  Impossible

  Barbara Kingsolver (2008). “Prodigal Summer”, p.68, Faber & Faber

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The saxophone is so human. Its tendency is to be rowdy, edgy, talk too loud, bump into people, say the wrong words at the wrong time, but then, you take a breath all the way from the center of the earth and blow. All that heartache is forgiven. All that love we humans carry makes a sweet, deep sound and we fly a little.

  Joy Harjo

  Sweet, Blow, People

  FaceBook post by Joy Harjo from Mar 05, 2013

  52 Copy quote

  Show source

• Nature/Structure. There is no more to say. In my pictures I reduce to that. But 'reduce' is the wrong word, because these are not simplifications. I can't verbalize what I am working on: to me, it is many-layered by definition; it is what is more important, what is more true.

  Gerhard Richter

  Art, Important, Definitions

  Gerhard Richter, Dietmar Elger, Hans-Ulrich Obrist (2009). “Gerhard Richter: writings 1961-2007”, Distributed Art Pub Inc

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• I feel like the reason I ended up becoming a playwright is because I never choose the right word. As a kid, my fantasy profession was to be a novelist. But the thing about writing prose - and maybe great prose writers don't feel this way - but I always felt it was about choosing words. I was always like, "I have to choose the perfect word." And then it would kill me, and I would choose the wrong word or I would choose too many perfect words - I wrote really purple prose.

  Annie Baker

  Writing, Kids, Purple

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• I always worried I'd forget my lines or say the wrong words or the audience would laugh in the wrong places.

  Lawrence Welk

  Laughing, Lines, Forget

  Lawrence Welk, Bernice McGeehan (1973). “Wunnerful, Wunnerful: The Autobiography of Lawrence Welk”

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Probably some of the songs I never even really listened to the lyrics. Half of them I'd hear off the radio and was probably singing the wrong words and didn't even know it.

  Alan Jackson

  Song, Singing, Half

  "Biography / Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The problem with love and God, the two of them, is how to say anything about them that doesn’t annihilate them instantly with the wrong words, with untruth. . . . In this sense, love and God are equivalents. We feel both, but because we cannot speak clearly about them, we end up–wordless, inarticulate—by denying their existence altogether, and, pfffffft, they die.

  Charles Baxter

  Two, Say Anything, Problem

  Charles Baxter (2009). “The Feast of Love”, p.77, Vintage

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Style is a very simple matter; it is all rhythm. Once you get that, you can't use the wrong words. But on the other hand here am I sitting after half the morning, crammed with ideas, and visions, and so on, and can't dislodge them, for lack of the right rhythm. Now this is very profound, what rhythm is, and goes far deeper than any words. A sight, an emotion, creates this wave in the mind, long before it makes words to fit it.

  Virginia Woolf

  Morning, Simple, Sight

  Virginia Woolf, Joanne Trautmann Banks (1975). “The Letters of Virginia Woolf: 1923-1928”, Harcourt on Demand

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• It is probably impossible to think without words, but if we permit ourselves to think with the wrong words, we shall soon be entertaining erroneous thoughts; for words, which are given us for the expression of thought, have a habit of going beyond their proper bounds and determining the content of thought.

  Aiden Wilson Tozer

  Thinking, Expression, Impossible

  12 Copy quote

• We cannot control the way people interpret our ideas or thoughts, but we can control the words and tones we choose to convey them. Peace is built on understanding, and wars are built on misunderstandings. Never underestimate the power of a single word, and never recklessly throw around words. One wrong word, or misinterpreted word, can change the meaning of an entire sentence - and even start a war. And one right word, or one kind word, can grant you the heavens and open doors.

  Suzy Kassem

  War, Ideas, Doors

  "Rise Up and Salute the Sun". Book by Suzy Kassem, 2010.

  33 Copy quote

  Show source

• I've always loved writing emotionally rich, character-driven novels that explore the way people fall in love and deal with life's triumphs and tragedies. I enjoy writing the contemporary and historical books equally, though perhaps 'enjoy' is the wrong word.

  Susan Wiggs

  Falling In Love, Book, Writing

  Interview with Suzanne Fox, www.publishersweekly.com. January 28, 2002.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source