Suzanne Brockmann Quotes

Speak properly, and in as few words as you can, but always plainly; for the end of speech is not ostentation, but to be understood.

One merit of poetry few persons will deny: it says more and in fewer words than prose.

Where questions of style and exposition are concerned I try to follow a simple maxim: if you can't say it clearly you don't understand it yourself.

Minimalism has a connotation of being reductive, and not in the best way. 'Brevetist' is a better term. I'm trying to be as concise as possible and still getting across to the reader. When information is delivered in that way, it is very satisfying to me.

Always try to use the language so as to make quite clear what you mean and make sure your sentence couldn't mean anything else.

He had a wonderful talent for packing thought close, and rendering it portable.

A good discourse is that from which nothing can be retrenched without cutting into the quick.

Say what you have to say in the fewest possible words.

If you really understand something, you can say it in the fewest words, instead of thrashing about.

My goal is to strip things down so that you need just the right amount of words or shape to convey what you need to convey. I like editing. I like it very tight.

I try to just communicate what I want done as clearly and simply as possible.

He can compress the most words into the smallest idea of any man I know.

Clarity of communication is important.

He who thinks much says but little in proportion to his thoughts. He selects that language which will convey his ideas in the most explicit and direct manner.

The best instruction is that which uses the least words sufficient for the task.

A parsimony of words prodigal of sense.

Aphorisms may equivocate, but they must not wobble.

A multitude of words is probably the most formidable means of blurring and obscuring thought. There is no thought, however momentous, that cannot be expressed lucidly in 200 words.

If we are understood, more words are unnecessary; if we are not likely to be understood, they are useless.

We now demand the light artillery of the intellect; we need the curt, the condensed, the pointed, the readily diffused - in place of the verbose, the detailed, the voluminous, the inaccessible. On the other hand, the lightness of the artillery should not degenerate into pop-gunnery - by which term we may designate the character of the greater portion of the newspaper press - their sole legitimate object being the discussion of ephemeral matters in an ephemeral manner.

A politician is a man who can be verbose in fewer words than anyone else.

Words, like glasses, obscure everything they do not make clear. Before using a fine word, make a place for it.

To get the right word in the right place is a rare achievement. To condense the diffused light of a page of thought into the luminous flash of a single sentence, is worthy to rank as a prize composition just by itself...Anybody can have ideas--the difficulty is to express them without squandering a quire of paper on an idea that ought to be reduced to one glittering paragraph.

Few things concentrate the mind more efficiently than the necessity of saying what you mean. It brings you face to face with what you are talking about, what you are actually proposing. It gets you away from the catch phrases that not merely substitute for thought but preclude it.

[B]riefing is not reading. In fact it is the antithesis of reading. Briefing is terse, factual and to the point. Reading is untidy, discursive and perpetually inviting. Briefing closes down a subject, reading opens it up.