Maggie Stiefvater Quotes

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.)

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

Less is almost always better than more. Short words, short sentences, short speeches.

Never say more than is necessary.

There are occasions when the simplest and fewest words surpass in effect all the wealth of rhetorical amplification.

My stories are very compact. I want them to say the most complex things in the simplest way.

Some people write a thank you note for a gift, and it's three pages long, and some people write a thank you note, and it's five sentences - that's me. I like to pare away words because I don't want to waste anyone's time.

A little inaccuracy sometimes saves a ton of explanation.

I strive to be brief but I become obscure.

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.

Why need I volumes, if one word suffice?

In labouring to be concise, I become obscure.

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

I strive to be brief, and I become obscure.

I believe most things can be said in a few lines.

My goal is to strip things down so that you need just the right amount of words or shape to convey what you need to convey. I like editing. I like it very tight.

It is when I struggle to be brief that I become obscure.

I'm an enemy of exposition. I feel there's no need to overstate.

True eloquence consists in saying all that is necessary, and nothing but what is necessary.

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.

Directing my own writing, I see that I talk way too much, and everything can happen much sooner, with much less said about it.

Be brief. Above all things be brief.

I'm into short emails.

I do try and keep my scripts quite economical.

If you want to show a picture, just show it - don't spend too much time arranging it.