Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes

To write well is to think well, to feel well, and to render well; it is to possess at once intellect, soul, and taste.

An author arrives at a good style when his language performs what is required of it without shyness.

I thought clarity of communication was the most important thing in writing, and if you really cared about getting your idea across, you would say it in the most straightforward way possible. Later, in college and grad school, I came to realize that language is a technology like any other, and that it's always evolving - clarity of expression is always evolving.

Like with anything, good writing suggest itself pretty strongly.

Writing well is at one and the same time good thinking, good feeling, and good expression; it is having wit, soul, and taste, all together.

I've always written very tightly, and there's a good reason for that. There's no point in using words that you're not going to apply.

If you have a craftsman's command of the language and basic writing techniques you'll be able to write - as long as you know what you want to say.

You know that something is really well written when you have to think so little about the words that are coming out of your mouth, and you're able to dwell in your own headspace to get there.

The way you write affects what you say.

There's a perception that good writing is writing which runs smoothly. But smooth-running prose can work against what you're trying to express in a novel.

Easy writing makes hard reading.

As for style of writing, if one has anything to say, it drops from him simply and directly, as a stone falls to the ground.

To make yourself understood you have to think plain and write plain.

Of writing well the source and fountainhead is wise thinking.

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.

Whatever we well understand we express clearly, and words flow with ease.

Good writing ... involves the agony of turning profoundly difficult thoughts into lucid form, then forcing them into the tight-fitting uniform of language, making them visible and clear.

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?

Good writing is clear. Talented writing is energetic. Good writing avoids errors. Talented writing makes things happen in the reader's mind - -vividly, forcefully.

I have always wanted to write in such a way that will make people think, Why, I've always thought that but never found the words for it.

My writing model is my mother, who is a writer as well. She always valued clarity and simplicity above all else. If someone doesn't understand what you're writing, then everything else you do is superfluous. Irrelevant. If any thoughtful, curious reader finds what I do impenetrable, I've failed.

Did you ever admire an empty-headed writer for his or her mastery of the language? No. So your own winning style must begin with ideas in your head.

Sound judgment is the ground of writing well.

Do but take care to express yourself in a plain, easy Manner, in well-chosen, significant and decent Terms, and to give a harmonious and pleasing Turn to your Periods: study to explain your Thoughts, and set them in the truest Light, labouring as much as possible, not to leave them dark nor intricate, but clear and intelligible.

What is conceived well is expressed clearly.