Gretchen Rubin Quotes

Good writing does not come from verbiage but from words.

Short words are best and the old words when short are best of all.

When I write legally, I try to write very plain, very vanilla, very clear.

Use familiar words-words that your readers will understand, and not words they will have to look up. No advice is more elementary, and no advice is more difficult to accept. When we feel an impulse to use a marvelously exotic word, let us lie down until the impulse goes away.

Broadly speaking, the short words are the best, and the old words best of all.

Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print. Never use a long word where a short one will do. If it is possible to cut a word out always cut it out. Never use the passive voice where you can use the active. Never use a foreign phrase a scientific word or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

Good writers are those who keep the language efficient. That is to say, keep it accurate, keep it clear.

I want it to be easy to read. I'm not writing exotic literature.

Why say 'utilize' when you can say 'use'?

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.

I have always tried to write in a simple way, using down-to-earth and not abstract words.

I keep everything very simple. I like telling stories.

I've been accused of being a minimalist writer. I don't like a lot of verbiage in there.

Vigorous writing is concise.

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

Never use a big word when a little filthy one will do.

Always write as if you are talking to someone. It works. Don't put on any fancy phrases or accents or things you wouldn't say in real life.

Here lies a plain and simple Jew who wrote in plain and simple prose.

I preferred the simplest vocabulary.

In prose, I think you sometimes have to write in very plain language, where every line may not seem to be so important, though in all writing every line is important.

Aim for brevity while avoiding jargon.

I love the right words. I think economy and precision of language are important.

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.

I just write like a grown man, because that's what I listen to. I'm not even speaking complicated English... I don't do five-syllable words, I don't do four-syllable words. This is English. Rudimentary English.

I like contemporary, bare-boned writing. I don't like having the language that I barely understand get in the way of me interpreting it over to an audience. It's this barrier that I don't want to have to attack.