"The important thing in writing is the capacity to astonish. Not shock - shock is a worn-out word - but astonish"
About this Quote
Southern’s career makes the distinction feel personal rather than pious. As a novelist and screenwriter orbiting satire (and the kind of cultural critique that smiles while it cuts), he understood that provocation without perception quickly becomes self-parody. "Shock is a worn-out word" is both aesthetic advice and a jab at the marketplace: when everything is marketed as transgressive, transgression becomes a genre, then a brand, then a cliché. Astonishment, by contrast, depends on craft - precision, timing, a controlled release of information, the sudden revelation of a hidden premise.
The subtext is a warning to writers tempted by shortcut scandal: don’t confuse reader discomfort with reader transformation. Southern is advocating for a more durable kind of disruption, where the reader isn’t simply offended or impressed, but newly oriented. The best astonishment carries a second beat - after the initial jolt, recognition arrives: of hypocrisy, of desire, of the absurd logic everyone’s been living with. That’s Southern’s sweet spot: not shock as noise, but astonishment as diagnosis.
Quote Details
| Topic | Writing |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite | Cite this Quote |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Southern, Terry. (2026, January 16). The important thing in writing is the capacity to astonish. Not shock - shock is a worn-out word - but astonish. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-important-thing-in-writing-is-the-capacity-to-97454/
Chicago Style
Southern, Terry. "The important thing in writing is the capacity to astonish. Not shock - shock is a worn-out word - but astonish." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-important-thing-in-writing-is-the-capacity-to-97454/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"The important thing in writing is the capacity to astonish. Not shock - shock is a worn-out word - but astonish." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-important-thing-in-writing-is-the-capacity-to-97454/. Accessed 3 Feb. 2026.
