Word Lover Alert

“If your work is not in your heart, your heart will never be in your work.”—Dr. Mardy Grothe

I love a great twist of words. A chiasmus (ky-AZ-mus) is a literary device. The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) defines chiasmus as, "A grammatical figure by which the order of words in one of two of parallel clauses is inverted in the other."

Here are some examples related to the writing craft.

Writing

"I can write better than anybody who can write faster, and I can write faster than anybody who can write better."— A. J. Liebling

"A good writer turns fact into truth; a bad writer will, more often than not, accomplish the opposite."—Edward Albee

"Is getting well ever an art, or art a way to get well?"—Robert Lowell

"If a dog bites a man, it's a story; if a man bites a dog, it's a good story."—Charles A. Dana

Poetry

"In poetry you have a form looking for a subject and a subject looking for a form. When they come together successfully you have a poem."—W. H. Auden

Publishing

Literature was formerly an art and finance a trade; today it is the reverse."—Joseph Roux

I subscribe to Dr. Mardy Grothe’s weekly newsletter featuring chiasmus sayings. He has a great sense of humor and his website also includes a great list of oxymorons.