Barry Diller Quotes

The best advice on writing I've ever received was from William Zinsser: 'Be grateful for every word you can cut.'

I am a minimalist. I like saying the most with the least.

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

A successful book is not made of what is in it, but what is left out of it.

As far as I'm concerned, if something is so complicated that you can't explain it in 10 seconds, then it's probably not worth knowing anyway.

If you can't be smart or funny, be brief.

The great art of writing is knowing when to stop.

Anything that can be put in a nut shell should remain there.

Whatever you want to teach, be brief.

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.

Everything that is exact is short.

Conciseness is underrated

I always listen to what I can leave out.

You can say a lot in a little time, if you stick to words of one syllable.

The point of good writing is knowing when to stop.

The secret of play-writing can be given in two maxims: stick to the point, and, whenever you can, cut.

The art of art, the glory of expression, is simplicity. Nothing is better than simplicity, and the sunlight of letters is simplicity. Nothing is better than simplicity-nothing can make up for excess, or for the lack of definiteness.

Not that the story need be long, but it will take a long while to make it short.

The simpler you say it, the more eloquent it is.

Never be so brief as to become obscure.

Aiming at brevity, I become obscure.

More matter with less art.

Whatever you teach, be brief; what is quickly said, the mind readily receives and faithfully retains, everything superfluous runs over as from a full vessel.

Cross out as many adjectives and adverbs as you can. ... It is comprehensible when I write: "The man sat on the grass," because it is clear and does not detain one's attention. On the other hand, it is difficult to figure out and hard on the brain if I write: "The tall, narrow-chested man of medium height and with a red beard sat down on the green grass that had already been trampled down by the pedestrians, sat down silently, looking around timidly and fearfully." The brain can't grasp all that at once, and art must be grasped at once, instantaneously.

When you introduce a moral lesson, let it be brief.