I think people who try to make every foreign phrase into a long discussion about how "They" think differently (certainly not like us) are exactly the same people who ruin perfectly good novels by insisting everything in them has to be a symbol for something or other. (Usually something disturbing.) Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, and sometimes a word is just lovely to hear or fun to understand, and not the banner-carrier of an entire culture.
—Campaign for the American Reader, Fenruary 7, 2007

Posted on February 9, 2007

Being in the dictionary is not a badge of honor. People aren't limited to words I've managed to capture and pin down. A dog doesn't have to be registered with the American Kennel Association to be a dog. It still fetches your slippers; it just isn't pedigreed.
—Denver Post, December 29, 2005

Posted on January 16, 2006

What we're looking for is something that's useful. Your dictionary is a tool box. We don't want minuscule, left-handed monkey wrenches in there. Words have to be good descriptors of the world.
—Denver Post, December 29, 2005

Posted on December 30, 2005

If you've ever heard yourself saying, "He was, I don't know, squidgeral," or thought, "I wish there were a word for 'needing more than two hands to operate,"' you are probably a closet neologist. Neologizing, the practice of coining new words, may seem to be an arcane, specialized activity, but it's everywhere — and the skillful employment of neologism is what gives English much of its verve.
—The New York Times, August 25, 2002

Posted on November 16, 1999

McKean's Law: Any correction of the speech or writing of others will contain at least one grammatical, spelling, or typographical error.
—VERBATIM, 2001

Posted on November 10, 1998