E. B. White Quotes

I wish my prose to be transparent—I don't want the reader to stumble over me; I want him to look through what I'm saying to what I'm describing. I don't want him ever to say, Oh, goodness, how nicely written this is. That would be a failure.

I think what's really hard is making sense and making what you write clear and smooth-flowing.

You cannot teach somebody to write a masterpiece, but you can certainly teach them how to improve their writing skills. And you can teach them that they can make their own voices more effective by being able to communicate more clearly and forcefully. It makes people feel more capable when they can write - for instance to make a request - of a politician - and when they are able to receive a reply.

Easy writing makes hard reading.

The difficulty is not to write, but to write what you mean.

People who think well, write well

I try to be specific. One thought at a time. Clear. Articulate. And above all, memorable, if you can be. You'd like to write phrases that people can't forget as soon as they read them.

Successful writers learn at last what they should learn at first,--to be intelligently simple.

Like with anything, good writing suggest itself pretty strongly.

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.

Plate glass... has no beauty of its own. Ideally, you ought not to be able to see it at all, but through it you can see all that is happening outside. That is the equivalent of writing that is plain and unadorned. Ideally, in reading such writing, you are not even aware that you are reading. Ideas and events seem merely to flow from the mind of the writer into that of the reader without any barrier between. I hope that is what is happening when you read this book

The main thing I try to do is write as clearly as I can. I rewrite a good deal to make it clear.

Easy reading requires hard writing.

The art of writing is not, as many seem to imagine, the art of bringing fine phrases into rhythmical order, but the art of placing before the reader intelligible symbols of the thoughts and feelings in the writer's mind.

I think that as you learn more about writing you learn to be direct.

I notice that you use plain, simple language, short words and brief sentences. That is the way to write English - it is the modern way and the best way. Stick to it; don't let fluff and flowers and verbosity creep in.

Although there is no substitute for merit in writing, clarity comes closest to being one.

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

With great writing, there is great clarity.

And how is clarity to be achieved? Mainly by taking trouble and by writing to serve people rather than to impress them.

He that will write well in any tongue, must follow this counsel of Aristotle, to speak as the common people do, to think as wise men do: and so should every man understand him, and the judgment of wise men allow him.

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

The habit of writing clearly soon comes to the writer who is a severe critic to himself.

All the elements of good writing depend on the writer's skill in choosing one word instead of another.

An author arrives at a good style when his language performs what is required of it without shyness.