Kate DiCamillo Quotes

Speak properly, and in as few words as you can, but always plainly; for the end of speech is not ostentation, but to be understood.

If we are understood, more words are unnecessary; if we are not likely to be understood, they are useless.

The most important thing is to have something important to say and finding the means to say it.

Do not say a little in many words but a great deal in a few.

Whatever is worth saying, can be stated in fifty words or less.

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 finest words in the world are only vain sounds if you can't understand them. The best sentence? The shortest.

You've got to say what you mean and mean what you say...Doubt in your voice is an open door people will shove right through.

Say only what you mean.

You try to make every word count, so there's no doubt what you're talking about. When you're young, you waffle away. Well, I'm done with that. I think it's much more interesting to say just what you mean.

Genuine good taste consists in saying much in few words, in choosing among our thoughts, in having order and arrangement in what we say, and in speaking with composure.

There's a great power in words, if you don't hitch too many of them together.

Simple and to the point is always the best way to get your point across.

It does not require many words to speak the truth.

Say what you have to say in the fewest possible words.

If you really understand something, you can say it in the fewest words, instead of thrashing about.

Vigorous writing is concise. 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.

My purpose in public address and in speech is really encapsulated in three C's: clear, concise, correct. No overblowing rhetoric or anything like that. As simple as possible: clear, concise, correct.

But I don't want to sing everything out of the side of my mouth, I want people to understand what I mean.

Aim for brevity while avoiding jargon.

Say only a little but say it well.

One of the lessons I think nearly all women need to learn, is, that when we are dealing with busy people, no matter how much interested we may be in a subject, we must put what we have to say in the briefest possible form. This is even more important if the person to whom we are talking is listening because of our interest and not because of his own. We may be able to impart some of our enthusiasm to him, if we do not first bore him to death and make him impatient because he is being asked to listen to too many words.

I speak as simply as possible because the issue is too great to be obscured by eloquence.

If you can find interesting ways to be clear, you're really onto something.

People who want to express themselves effectively can learn a lot from the hard-won concision of the copywriter.