The Quality of Doneness

Good writers use words. Great writers make words up!

Found this on RealClearPolitics - an anecdote from a Bill Kristol essay, which he wrote for the Weekly Standard's 10th anniversary:

I remember lamenting aloud at an editorial meeting that there was one article in the otherwise terrific issue we'd shortly be printing that was okay, but wasn't really at the highest level of quality. Fred Barnes immediately set me straight about this. Perhaps it wasn't the best imaginable piece of writing, Fred said of the essay in question. But the best imaginable piece of writing, in this case, did not exist, he pointed out. And the piece we had in hand, by contrast, possessed what Fred considered among the most important journalistic qualities: 'the quality of doneness.'

I am so hip.