Virginia Woolf Quotes

It is excellent discipline for an author to feel that he must say all that he has to say in the fewest possible words, or his readers is sure to skip them.

I think I'm succinct to the point of trying to write the two-word novel. Editing my work almost never means taking anything out but rather adding, because I'm always stripping down. I tend to under-write rather than over-write.

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.)

Never write more than two pages on any subject.

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

Hard writing makes easy reading.

But the shortest works are always the best.

Be brief. Above all things be brief.

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

I do try and keep my scripts quite economical.

Tweeting has taught me the discipline to say more with fewer words.

A book should be luminous not voluminous.

When a writer tries to explain too much, he's out of time before he begins.

I usually write very few stage directions. I think a lot of that is a waste of time. The art of screenwriting is in its terseness, saying a lot with a little. I have no patience when I read a script where the writer describes this guy and what he's wearing and his glasses and his hair.

Of one thing the reader can be certain: the more easily anything reads, the harder it has been to write.

If I could sum it up in 50 words, I wouldn't have needed to write a whole novel about it.

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.

A good rule for writers: do not explain overmuch.

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

Never use a long word where a short one will do.

Brevity in writing is the best insurance for its perusal.

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

The best sentence? The shortest.

My favorite form is the short story. From an aesthetics stand point you really have to pare down to the bone. You can't write a throw-away scene.

Let the reader find that he cannot afford to omit any line of your writing because you you have omitted every word that he can spare.