I really enjoyed discovering this passage on ‘truisms’ in Chuck Palahniuk’s book ‘Moments in my writing life after which everything was different’.
“The best writers seem to read our minds, and they nail exactly what we’ve never been able to put into words.”
He goes on to share a few pithy quotes.
Nora Ephron in her novel Heartburn wrote, “When you’re single you date other singles. And when you’re a couple you date other couples.”
Or Amy Hempel, who wrote, “What dogs want is for no one to ever leave.”
Great writers say in a few words the essence of a truth, an emotion, or a scene we’ve seen play out many times.