Kate Moss Quotes

Creativity has more to do with the elimination of the inessential than with inventing something new.

Directing my own writing, I see that I talk way too much, and everything can happen much sooner, with much less said about it.

So much of artistic creation is just exclusion. It's not creating things; it's just excluding things that really aren't going to be helpful.

It's not what you play but what you leave out that makes the difference.

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.

For any writer, the ability to look at a sentence and see what's superfluous, what can be altered, revised, expanded, and, especially, cut, is essential. It's satisfying to see that sentence shrink, snap into place, and ultimately emerge in a more polished form: clear, economical, sharp.

A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts.

Never say more than is necessary.

Great writers know what to cut out. It's the same in life. Clear ambitions. Clear relationships. This is the stuff of good story.

The most important lesson in the writing trade is that any manuscript is improved if you cut away the fat.

I am a minimalist. I like saying the most with the least.

Cut like crazy. Less is more. I've often read manuscripts - including my own - where I've got to the beginning of, say, chapter two and have thought: “This is where the novel should actually start.” A huge amount of information about character and backstory can be conveyed through small detail. The emotional attachment you feel to a scene or a chapter will fade as you move on to other stories. Be business-like about it.

I always listen to what I can leave out.

The point of good writing is knowing when to stop.

There is but one art, to omit.

Always listen for what you can leave out.

It is not hard to compose, but what is fabulously hard is to leave the superfluous notes under the table.

Less is more.

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex... It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.

Omit needless words.

I won't rewrite on set, but I'll just trim the fat.

Brevity and conciseness are the parents of correction.

Why need I volumes, if one word suffice?

Most of my work consisted of crossing out. Crossing out was the secret of all good writing.