Looking for Mark Twain quotes, I found that I had heard (and liked) many before. One such quote was: "The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated." For some reason, when reading this, I think of Paul McCartney! Apparently rumours marked Samuel Clemens as dead (much like the "Paul is dead" myth that circulated widely once upon a time and is still being told by some people today). Like a lot of the Mark Twain quotes I read, this one is funny because the way he says it makes it so blatantly obvious.
Another quote I really like (and I know we are only required to write one) is " Don't say the old lady screamed. Bring her on and let her scream." Mrs. Pitman had this on her wall when I was in sophomore English. It actually did impact me in my writing. What I think Twain means by saying it is that narratives tend to be disconnected from the story they are telling. By giving characters their own voices, the story is more believable and seems to come alive.
(I do wonder, though, if he meant that saying "The old lady screamed" would be worse than trying to vocalize her scream, like "The old lady said, 'Aaaaaaah!'," which, to me, looks a little silly.)
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