Subtlety Quotes

Purple prose attracts attention more than converts.

The subtlest lie of all is the full truth.

Michael Moorcock

Subtlety is the mark of confidence and is thus by far the hardest thing for a writer to achieve.

Early in 1967 Highsmith's agent told her why her books did not sell in paperback in America. It was, said Patricia Schartle Myrer, because they were 'too subtle', combined with the fact that none of her characters were likeable. 'Perhaps it is because I don't like anyone,' Highsmith replied. 'My last books may be about animals'.

Truth is not fully explosive, but purely electric. You don't blow the world up with the truth; you shock it into motion.

...were these Essays of mine considerable enough to deserve a critical judgment, it might then, I think, fallout that they would not much take with common and vulgar capacities, nor be very acceptable to the singular and excellent sort of men; the first would not understand them enough, and the last too much; and so they may hover in the middle region.

Michel de Montaigne