Lucille Clifton Quotes

I notice that you use plain, simple language, short words and brief sentences. That is the way to write English - it is the modern way and the best way. Stick to it; don't let fluff and flowers and verbosity creep in.

Omit needless words.

A rule to live by: I won't use anything I can't explain in five minutes.

I hope that my ideas attract a lively dialogue, even if my sentences are simple. Simple sentences have always served me well. And I don't use semicolons. It's hard to read anyway, especially for high school kids. Also, I avoid irony, too. I don't like people saying one thing and meaning the other.

Every man speaks and writes with intent to be understood; and it can seldom happen but he that understands himself might convey his notions to another, if, content to be understood, he did not seek to be admired.

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.

The best writing has no lace on its sleeves.

Think like a wise man but communicate in the language of the people.

I never want to confuse people or go over their heads.

Hard writing makes easy reading.

Good writing does not come from verbiage but from words.

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.

I am a firm believer that if you can explain it to a kid, you're on the right track.

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

Writing for adults and writing for young people is really not that different. As a reporter, I have always tried to write as clearly and simply as possible. I like clean, unadorned writing. So writing for a younger audience was largely an exercise in making my prose even more clear and direct, and in avoiding complicated digressions.

Aim for brevity while avoiding jargon.

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

We should not write so that it is possible for [the reader] to understand us, but so that it is impossible for him to misunderstand us.

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

In very simple language, Morrie always seems to be able to explain something that other people would take a chapter for, you know.

Muddy language is not confined to policies alone. Each of you has seen replies to simple questions in which the meaning was lost through hopelessly obscure wording. When a person writes to the Veterans Administration, he is entitled to an easily understood, frank, and courteous reply. If our replies cannot be understood, they are not only not worth writing, but they simply create additional work.

A book should be luminous not voluminous.

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

Successful writers learn at last what they should learn at first,--to be intelligently simple.

You're going to write straight and simple and good now. That's the start.''What if I'm not straight and simple and good? Do you think I can write that way?''Write how you are but make it straight.