Painted portrait of Mark Twain with white hair and moustache, in a pale grey suit, against a mustard ground

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Mark Twain

1835–1910 · Novelist and humorist

…the difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter — 'tis the difference between the lightning-bug and the lightning.

...the difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter — 'tis the difference between the lightning-bug and the lightning.

Mark Twain · letter to George Bainton, 1888
Read it in the source →

Mark Twain wrote this in 1888 to George Bainton, who was gathering authors' methods of work for a book; Bainton printed it in The Art of Authorship (1890).

In the same letter Twain says style is built brick by brick, out of every sentence we read and like.

Letter to George Bainton, 1888 (printed undated). George Bainton (ed.), The Art of Authorship: Literary Reminiscences, Methods of Work, and Advice to Young Beginners (London: James Clarke, 1890), pp. 87–88.

The originals

Photograph of Mark Twain with white hair and a white moustache, in a light suit
The likenessPHOTOGRAPHED BY A. F. BRADLEY · 1907Our portrait is painted after it.Public domain in the US (published/copyrighted 1907; Library of Congress lists no known restrictions; Commons: PD US expired).
The green cloth cover of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, with a gold figure of Huck and the title in gold
Huckleberry FinnAdventures of Huckleberry Finn in its green and gold cloth cover. The book came out in London in 1884 and in New York in 1885.Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, publisher's cloth cover (undated copy). Missouri Historical Society (GRA00613), no known copyright restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons.