Margaret Wise Brown Quotes

Never use a big word when a little filthy one will do.

Why say 'utilize' when you can say 'use'?

When you're just singing a beautiful melody with a story that's true to the heart, you don't need a lot of embellishment.

I would never use a long word, even, where a short one would answer the purpose.

Before you use a fancy word, make room for it.

Your message means less than the way the message is delivered, because in actuality, the way the message is delivered, IS the message.

Our effectiveness depends on our capacity to be audacious and astute, clear and appealing. I would hope that we can create a language more fearless and beautiful than that used by conformist writers to greet the twilight.

It behooves us to avoid archaisms. Never use a long word when a diminutive one will do.

Later," Fang said to Ella and Dr. Martinez in that gushy, hyperemotional, overdramatic way he has.

My wife loves written words ... you know, words that stick to parchment and paper like dead flies, and it seems my father felt the same - but I want to hear words! Remember that when you are looking for the right words: You must ask yourself what they SOUND like! Glowing with passion, dark with sorrow, sweet with love, that's what I want. - Cosimo

I write as straight as I can, just as I walk as straight as I can, because that is the best way to get there.

Uncommon things must be said in common words.

Don't use big words. They mean so little.

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

My tendency is to want to say to the person, "Do you understand why I feel this way?" I usually do say that. And sometimes it doesn't go well. By this I mean we hit an impasse again. Not that I need to hear exactly what I want to hear, but I need to know I am heard. Those moments make for a better friendship. But I can't let it go. For good or bad.

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.

A limited vocabulary, but one with which you can make numerous combinations, is better than thirty thousand words that only hamper the action of the mind.

I knew lots of Irish ladies in my life who would say daft things and then would just say something incredibly truthful in a very simple way with simple language - a few well chosen words that would take an intellectual five minutes to express. I like that.

Elegance of language must give way before simplicity in preaching sound doctrine.

It fascinates me to create beautiful paintings with the simplest means.

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

Don't deliver an essay with so many points. No one can absorb it. Just say one thing... Of course, you can say the point in many different ways over and over again with different illustrations.

Be On Your Way is one of the favorite songs I've ever written. What a terribly sad song, but what a beautiful melody.

Beautiful things spoil nothing.