Sigmund Freud Quotes

It is excellent discipline for an author to feel that he must say all that he has to say in the fewest possible words, or his readers is sure to skip them.

A good rule for writers: do not explain overmuch.

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.

A writer should never be brief at the expense of being clear.

The shorter and the plainer the better.

It takes two to write a letter as much as it takes two to make a quarrel.

A book should be luminous not voluminous.

It behooves us to avoid archaisms. Never use a long word when a diminutive one will do.

To write well it is first necessary to have something to say.

When a writer tries to explain too much, he's out of time before he begins.

The best advice on writing I've ever received was from William Zinsser: 'Be grateful for every word you can cut.'

I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.

It is excellent discipline for an author to feel that he must say all he has to say in the fewest possible words, or his reader is sure to skip them; and in the plainest possible words, or his reader will certainly misunderstand them. Generally, also, a downright fact may be told in a plain way; and we want downright facts at present more than anything else.

It doesn't matter how much we know, it matters how clearly others can understand what we know.

You come by your style by learning what to leave out. At first you tend to overwrite—embellishment instead of insight. You either continue to write puerile bilge, or you change. In the process of simplifying oneself, one often discovers the thing called voice.

I think precision in writing goes hand in hand with not trying to say everything. You try and say two-thirds, so the reader will involve himself or herself.

A lot of critics think I'm stupid because my sentences are so simple and my method is so direct: they think these are defects. No. The point is to write as much as you know as quickly as possible.

Writing for children is murder. A chapter has to be boiled down to a paragraph. Every word has to count.

The simpler you say it, the more eloquent it is.

Speech is highly elliptical. It would scarcely be endurable otherwise. Ellipsis is indispensable to the writer or speaker who wants to be brief and pithy, but it can easily cause confusion and obscurity and must be used with skill.

A scrupulous writer, in every sentence that he writes, will ask himself at least four questions, thus: 1. What am I trying to say? 2. What words will express it? 3. What image or idiom will make it clearer? 4. Is this image fresh enough to have an effect?

I made up my mind long ago to follow one cardinal rule in all my writing — to be clear.

And I refuse to feel guilty about not letter-writing either. There are times when one can, times when one can't. In the times when an enormous amount of living is going on, one can't.

One can only continue to expect to be read if one omits everything that is unimportant.

My most important piece of advice to all you would-be writers: when you write, try to leave out all the parts readers skip.