Writing with Passion

True nerds like me will probably already have seen this in their daily e-mail from Oxford University Press with "Garner's Usage Tip of the Day" (to which you can subscribe at:  http://www.us.oup.com/us/subscriptions/subscribe/?view=usa&view=usa ), but those of you who have lives might appreciate today's "Quotation of the Day":

"Now and then you may be tempted to write passionately for a great cause. You should resist the temptation. A few writers have managed great passion for great causes, but success is rare in passionate writing because so few writers control passion well. Passion becomes bombast if it is angry. It often becomes fulsome sentiment . . . . Few readers are convinced by superheated prose; they are more often embarrassed, and sometimes they are enraged." Richard Marius, A Writer's Companion 19 (1985).

That strikes me as probably true, but, boy, is that hard to remember when you're writing about convictions that stem from your deepest beliefs, isn't it?

Lisa