Joseph Pulitzer Quotes

Writing for me is cutting out the fat and getting to the meaning.

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

Minimalism has a connotation of being reductive, and not in the best way. 'Brevetist' is a better term. I'm trying to be as concise as possible and still getting across to the reader. When information is delivered in that way, it is very satisfying to me.

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

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.

Don't write so that you can be understood, write so that you can't be misunderstood.

The chief virtue that language can have is clearness, and nothing detracts from it so much as the use of unfamiliar words.

Use no superfluous word, no adjective, which does not reveal something.

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

Aiming at brevity, I become obscure.

The single most important lesson of effective communication is this: Focus on clarity. Concentrate on precisions. Don’t worry about constructing beautiful sentences. Beauty comes from meaning, not language. Accuracy is the most effective style of all.

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.

Speak clearly, if you speak at all; carve every word before you let it fall.

Words are how people think. When you misuse words, you diminish your ability to think clearly and truthfully.

If we do away with semi-colons, parentheses and much else, we will lose all music, nuance and subtlety in communication - and end up shouting at one another in block capitals.

It's technically extremely difficult to get down what you really mean, not what you think you mean, or what you think sounds good, but what's really there, what you really have to express, in words that somehow convey that meaning in an approximate way.

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.

Where questions of style and exposition are concerned I try to follow a simple maxim: if you can't say it clearly you don't understand it yourself.

You don't need many words if you already know what you're talking about.

The right word fitly spoken is a precious rarity.

Brevity and conciseness are the parents of correction.

There are writers who pour out words, concepts that sound really important but that basically say nothing. I always tried to be as concise as possible, all to try and reach everyone, but especially the simple people, those who needed to be reached more than anyone else.

False eloquence is exaggeration; true eloquence is emphasis.

A genius knows how to make himself easily understood without being obvious about it.

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