Jeff Lindsay Quotes

Through an arbitrary problem, I had arrived at a tenet of good writing: brevity wins.

I've simplified much more in my writing. I say what I've got to say, not in metaphor.

Omit needless words.

I don't use a lot of words unnecessarily.

I think in most cases, unless you're writing about a character who is garrulous, you say what you've got to say and then get out. Those little conjunctions, those little turnaround words help you do it. That's the way I like to write: I get rid of things rather than add them.

Never use a long word where a short one will do.

My most important rule is one that sums up the 10: If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.

It's so easy to use tired, shopworn figures of speech. I love using long, fancy words but have learned - mostly from writing my biography of Winston Churchill - that short, strong words work better. I am ever-vigilant against the passive and against jargon, both of which are so insidious.

Hard writing makes easy reading.

I'm fighting against the bad poet who is prone to using too many words.

Brevity and conciseness are the parents of correction.

Easy reading is damn hard writing.

In prose, I think you sometimes have to write in very plain language, where every line may not seem to be so important, though in all writing every line is important.

One mistake with beginners in writing is, that they think it important to spin out something long. It is a great deal better not to write more than a page or two, unless you have something to say, and can write it correctly.

Wordiness is a sickness of American writing. Too many words dilute and blur ideas.

I've really tried to strip my writing of as many adjectives and adverbs as I possibly can.

Adverbs lead to overwriting. Try taking them out and reading your prose again to see how it sounds. Simple and less words are more powerful.

Why say 'utilize' when you can say 'use'?

I am a stickler for damn good writing.

Use no superfluous word, no adjective, which does not reveal something.

Sometimes a flat-footed sentence is what serves, so you don't get all writerly: 'He opened the door.' There, it's open.

Say all you have to say in the fewest possible words, or your reader will be sure to skip them; and in the plainest possible words or he will certainly misunderstand them.

Short words are best and the old words when short are best of all.

Less really is more. It's a tendency of beginning writers to want to prove what they're talking about by going too far with description. I think you've got to keep it short, crisp and clean.

Vigorous writing is concise.