The truth is that Heightened language has become suspect. Most editors, producers, and entrepreneurs keep vigil against it. Unless a phrase of any power is couched in colloquial and conventional terms, unless it scrupulously avoids any glimmer of eloquence, it is banished as “purple.”

The truth is that Heightened language has become suspect. Most editors, producers, and entrepreneurs keep vigil against it. Unless a phrase of any power is couched in colloquial and conventional terms, unless it scrupulously avoids any glimmer of eloquence, it is banished as “purple.”

“Wanted: Phrasemakers” from the book Holes in a Stained Glass Window (1978)