“I do not agree with Samuel Butler’s remark, ‘I never knew a writer yet who took the smallest pains with his style and was at the same time readable.’ I would amend this saying: nobody ever wrote well who at some time or other did not take pains with his style. In fact, until writing has by thought and practice become unselfconscious, it cannot achieve style–and by style I mean a natural easy expression which is not anonymous.”
Neville Cardus, Autobiography