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Art & Creativity Quote by Don Marquis

"The art of newspaper paragraphing is to stroke a platitude until it purrs like an epigram"

About this Quote

Marquis skewers a whole professional reflex: the way journalism can dress up the obvious and sell it back as insight. “Stroke a platitude” is a perfect little act of contempt. A platitude is already domesticated language, the verbal equivalent of furniture you stop noticing. To “stroke” it suggests both laziness and complicity, the writer soothing a tame idea until it performs on cue. Then comes the punchline: it “purrs like an epigram.” The sentence turns on that feline verb, implying the newsroom’s prized product is not truth but a pleasing sound, a little self-satisfied vibration that signals “smart” without requiring risk.

The subtext is less “journalists are dumb” than “journalistic incentives are corrupting.” Paragraphing, supposedly a craft of clarity and structure, becomes a technique for creating the illusion of bite. Marquis is pointing at a specific kind of copy: the crisp paragraph that snaps shut with a witty turn, the clean conclusion that feels earned but is actually prepackaged. Epigrams are meant to be sharp; here, sharpness is simulated through grooming.

Context matters: Marquis wrote in an era when mass-circulation papers were industrializing attention, standardizing voice, and rewarding speed. In that environment, the small unit of the paragraph becomes a factory product, optimized for consumption. His line also lands as a warning to readers: if it purrs, check whether it’s been fed anything real.

Quote Details

TopicWitty One-Liners
Source
Verified source: Oxford Dictionary of Humorous Quotations (Ned Sherrin, 2008)ISBN: 9780199237166 · ID: 5q4XBa5jsy8C
Text match: 95.00%   Provider: Google Books
Evidence:
... don't actually read newspapers . They get into them every morning , like a hot bath . 11 The art of newspaper paragraphing is to stroke a platitude until it purrs like an epigram ... Marquis 1878–1937 : E. Anthony O Rare Don Marquis ...
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Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Marquis, Don. (2026, February 13). The art of newspaper paragraphing is to stroke a platitude until it purrs like an epigram. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-art-of-newspaper-paragraphing-is-to-stroke-a-145851/

Chicago Style
Marquis, Don. "The art of newspaper paragraphing is to stroke a platitude until it purrs like an epigram." FixQuotes. February 13, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-art-of-newspaper-paragraphing-is-to-stroke-a-145851/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"The art of newspaper paragraphing is to stroke a platitude until it purrs like an epigram." FixQuotes, 13 Feb. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-art-of-newspaper-paragraphing-is-to-stroke-a-145851/. Accessed 1 Mar. 2026.

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Stroke a Platitude Until It Purrs Like an Epigram
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About the Author

Don Marquis

Don Marquis (July 29, 1878 - December 29, 1937) was a Journalist from USA.

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