David Ogilvy Quotes

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

What a labour writing is ... making one sentence do the work of a page; that's what I call hard work.

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.

Brevity in writing is the best insurance for its perusal.

But the shortest works are always the best.

I cannot write long books; I leave that for those who have nothing to say.

They write them long because they can't write them short.

I am trying to say it all in one sentence, between one cap and one period.

A book should be luminous not voluminous.

It is excellent discipline for an author to feel that he must say all he has to say in the fewest possible words, or his reader is sure to skip them; and in the plainest possible words, or his reader will certainly misunderstand them. Generally, also, a downright fact may be told in a plain way; and we want downright facts at present more than anything else.

It is excellent discipline for an author to feel that he must say all that he has to say in the fewest possible words, or his readers is sure to skip them.

A good rule for writers: do not explain overmuch.

Make no mistake, those who write long books have nothing to say. Of course those who write short books have even less to say.

In six pages, I can't even say "Hello.

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 think I'm succinct to the point of trying to write the two-word novel. Editing my work almost never means taking anything out but rather adding, because I'm always stripping down. I tend to under-write rather than over-write.

When I struggle to be terse, I end by being obscure.

It has often been said there’s so much to be read, you never can cram all those words in your head. So the writer who breeds more words than he needs is making a chore for the reader who reads. That's why my belief is the briefer the brief is, the greater the sigh of the reader's relief is. And that's why your books have such power and strength. You publish with shorth! (Shorth is better than length.)

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

To say more while saying less is the secret of being simple.

Let the reader find that he cannot afford to omit any line of your writing because you you have omitted every word that he can spare.

My most important rule is one that sums up the 10: If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.

Lyrically, 'less words mean more' is a pretty good rule of thumb. Try to cut out the fat and get to the meat of what you're saying.

It is sheer laziness not compressing thought into a reasonable space.

You can suffocate a thought by expressing it with too many words.