These writers had the power to make you wonder in a room full of people, inspire you to climb K2, and convince you to buy a Red Maserati when all you need is a minivan.
Some of these writers that I summoned here are marketers and some straight-out insane. However, the reason I am writing about these lines is that these lines knocked me out cold. They might not hit you the same but will for sure teach both of us a thing or two about how to write.
1. David Ogilvy for Rolls Royce
At 60 miles an hour, the loudest noise in the new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock.
When you read this line, you think of yourself driving down the freeway in your new Rolls Royce at sixty miles an hour and hearing the tick-tick of the damned clock. Wtf!
2. Charles Bukowski
“not being able to love fully
they will believe your love incomplete
and then they will hate you
and their hatred will be perfectlike a shining diamond
like a knife
like a mountain
like a tiger
like hemlocktheir finest art”
I loved you like a man who loved a woman here never touches, just writes to and keeps little photographs of.
I wouldn’t suggest you read Charles Bukowski if you want to live a normal happy life. Because reading his stuff is just like dating a Lana del Rey kinda girl, she’ll fuck your life up and you’ll be happy about it.
(Don’t do it)
3. Scott Fitzgerald on being finer in the grain.
Before you read this one, let me tell you the back-end story. A few weeks back, I went to a library at a university I don’t study at. It’s something that makes me feel good about myself like looking at all these students playing with their phones and looking at me I am going to the library with an aim to read Scot Fitzgerald. Such a rare breed I am.
Long story short, I found one of his books and a corner table. Exactly 7 seconds later, my up-in-the-air ass was knocked out on the floor.
So you’ve read a few books and watched a couple of plays and you think you’re now finer in the grain than them.
Ouch.
4. Bruce Lee on being fluid in life.
“ Be formless, shapeless, like water. You put water in the cup, it becomes the cup, you put water in the teapot, it becomes the tea pot. Now, water can flow and it can crash. Be water my friend.”
You know something’s important to a person if it’s on their Instagram bio. This line right here, be water my friend is on my bio. Do I need to explain further?
5. Steve Jobs for Ipod
1000 songs in your pocket.
While promoting iPod, he did not chest-pump about the design, the battery time of it, or how many GBs it comes with because people can’t imagine how much space 5 GB is. Instead, he gave them something to remember, that it puts 1000 songs in your pocket. Period.
6. Lorde on being Lorde
living in ruins of the palace within my dreams.
These 9 words make me wonder where I want to be and where I am right now. We all have a palace full of dreams but most of us are only living in the ruins of it. It’s breathtaking how this 24-year-old Kiwi finds words to communicate such deep ideas.
So what did we learn here?
I am no expert in writing let alone great writing. But, a while back I learned that all these wizards have one thing in common. They make you wonder. They make you wonder by relating something abstract to something we all know and understand.
For instance, Bukowski said that the hate of an average person is as perfect as a tiger, Bruce Lee preached to be as formless in life as water, and so on. You see, they make you see what they are saying.
Just like a storyteller, they separate themselves from the story, leaving the reader wondering in a room full of people.
To win your love, instead of a boring ily, tell her that you loved her like a man who loves a woman he never touches, just writes to and keeps little photographs of. To win more customers, go from we offer 5GBs of space to we put a thousand songs in your pocket.
Maybe that’s too dramatic but…
Peace.
