Michael Winter Quotes

Omit needless words.

Good writing does not come from verbiage but from words.

Hard writing makes easy reading.

I've really tried to strip my writing of as many adjectives and adverbs as I possibly can.

Adverbs lead to overwriting. Try taking them out and reading your prose again to see how it sounds. Simple and less words are more powerful.

People who want to express themselves effectively can learn a lot from the hard-won concision of the copywriter.

I think in most cases, unless you're writing about a character who is garrulous, you say what you've got to say and then get out. Those little conjunctions, those little turnaround words help you do it. That's the way I like to write: I get rid of things rather than add them.

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

Less really is more. It's a tendency of beginning writers to want to prove what they're talking about by going too far with description. I think you've got to keep it short, crisp and clean.

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

Easy reading is damn hard writing.

In a newspaper, you only have so much room. It teaches you the value of getting to the point, of not pampering yourself with your glorious writing. I've always been much more interested in one powerful sentence that stays with you. That's my style.

Vigorous writing is concise.

I've simplified much more in my writing. I say what I've got to say, not in metaphor.

My writing tends to become very dense, so I have to keep some cushion. Sometimes, words that seem superfluous are actually essential for the overall effect.

I am a stickler for damn good writing.

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

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

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.

A young writer is easily tempted by the allusive and ethereal and ironic and reflective, but the declarative is at the bottom of most good writing.

The best writing has no lace on its sleeves.

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

Be prepared to fall out of love with your words. I'm still too verbose at times.

I've always written very tightly, and there's a good reason for that. There's no point in using words that you're not going to apply.

I'm fighting against the bad poet who is prone to using too many words.