You don’t need to read an author’s body of work to understand their writing style.
I can give you a page – or a paragraph – from a famous writer and you can probably guess who it is. Well, if they’re famous enough.
A little experiment: How would some famous authors and celebrities answer the question, “Why did the chicken cross the road?”
ERNEST HEMINGWAY:
To die. In the rain. Alone.
THE BIBLE:
And God came down from the heavens and He said unto the chicken, “Thou shalt cross the road.” And the chicken crossed the road and there was much rejoicing.
ARISTOTLE:
It is the nature of chickens to cross the road.
CAPTAIN JAMES T. KIRK:
To boldly go where no chicken has gone before.
FREUD:
The fact that you are at all concerned that the chicken crossed the road reveals your underlying sexual insecurity.
RALPH WALDO EMERSON:
The chicken did not cross the road. It transcended it.
BUDDHA:
Asking this question denies your own chicken nature.
MACHIAVELLI:
The point is that the chicken crossed the road. Who cares why? The end of crossing the road justifies whatever motive there was.
KARL MARX:
It was a historical inevitability.
BILL O’ REILLY:
To steal a job from a decent, hardworking American.
DR. SEUSS:
Did the chicken cross the road? Did he cross it with a toad? Yes! The chicken crossed the road. Why it crossed, I’ve not been told.
GRANDPA:
In my day, we didn’t ask why the chicken crossed the road. Someone told us that the chicken had crossed the road, and that was good enough for us.
New bonus answers:
BILL GATES:
I have just released the new Chicken 7, which will not only cross roads, but will also lay eggs, file your important documents, balance your checkbook and compete with Apple’s Smooth Eagle.
JERRY SEINFELD:
Why does anyone cross a road? I mean, why doesn’t anyone ever think to ask, “What the heck was this chicken doing walking around all over the place, anyway? What is wrong with that chicken?
PARIS HILTON:
Huh?
The Red Pen of Doom 