"Success consists in felicity of verbal expression, which every so often may result from a quick flash of inspiration but as a rule involves a patient search for the mot juste, for the sentence in which every word is unalterable, the most effective marriage of sounds and concepts"
When I think of quickness, the images that come to mind are cheetas, NASCAR, fighter jets, Sonic the Hedgehog, you know things like that. But are those things really quick or are they just fast? As a former athlete, coaches always told me that there was a difference between being fast and being quick. Depending on the sport, being quick and being fast were desirable things. In basketball, being quick was a great thing. If you could move your feet and get around a defender, you were considered a skilled player. But, you only had to move maybe 5 feet at the most. In track, on the other hand, running 100 meters in 10 seconds was considered fast. But would those fast track stars be quick in basketball? I think this is what Calvino is trying to get across. There's a difference between being quick in your writing and being fast. To me, quickness has more depth and more meaning attached to it because you have less time to get your message across. There must be a richness to it and little must go a long way.
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