Tom Stoppard Quotes

You know what writers say about their long books: If I had another year, the book would be half as long.

I take six or seven years to write really small books. There is a kind of aesthetic of leanness, of brevity.

Be prepared to fall out of love with your words. I'm still too verbose at times.

The present letter is a very long one, simply because I had no leisure to make it shorter.

You know that I write slowly. This is chiefly because I am never satisfied until I have said as much as possible in a few words, and writing briefly takes far more time than writing at length.

I have made this letter longer than usual, only because I have not had the time to make it shorter.

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.

When you're writing in big block paragraphs, you can afford to have a redundant sentence now and then, but the Twitter format requires concision.

It is no great art to say something briefly when, like Tacitus, one has something to say; when one has nothing to say, however, and none the less writes a whole book and makes truth into a liar - that I call an achievement.

Being able to write an idea down succinctly doesn't make that idea any better than one which rambles on a bit. It just comes to the point sooner.

I write about eight hours a day, and I throw away most of what I write.

Anyone can make an article longer; the skill is keeping it tight and lean.

In a newspaper, you only have so much room. It teaches you the value of getting to the point, of not pampering yourself with your glorious writing. I've always been much more interested in one powerful sentence that stays with you. That's my style.

There is no way of writing well and also of writing easily.

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

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.

So the writer who breeds more words than he needs, is making a chore for the reader who reads.

The process of writing a book has given me a whole new reverence for writers. Mechanically, it is a brutal process; emotionally, it's incredibly healing.

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.

I'm a person who, when I set out to write, I write. It's just like when you set out to eat, you eat, or when you set out to sleep, you sleep. I don't do somersaults to write something. I just do it.

I write an actual script rather quickly - a draft will take me two weeks - but I write a lot of drafts. My big thing is I don't re-read. When I write, I never re-read back. I'll send it, because if I re-read back, it will cripple me.

Of course I knew that writing was terrifically hard work and that there was no secret code, as in a video game, that would unlock Tolstoy-mode, enabling me to crank out canon-worthy novellas before lunch.

If you are careful about the content and writing style, readers will not feel that you are in a hurry.

My sweet spot as a writer and, especially, as an essayist is sub-1500 words.

Tweeting has taught me the discipline to say more with fewer words.