Carl Friedrich Gauss Quotes

I have made this letter longer than usual, only because I have not had the time to make it shorter.

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

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

If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out

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

You know what writers say about their long books: If I had another year, the book would be half as long.

For each detail I include, I throw dozens away. So I guess the first trick is to pick the right details, the most revealing details. Then I think one must simply write quick, clean, bright prose. For me, this means rewriting and rewriting: almost never adding, almost always cutting.

Omit needless words.

The beautiful part of writing is that you don't have to get it right the first time, unlike, say, a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping simile.

Brevity and conciseness are the parents of correction.

Most of my work consisted of crossing out. Crossing out was the secret of all good writing.

Easy reading is damn hard writing.

I write scenes - often quite long scenes - mainly because I still get seduced into writing six lines where one and a half will do.

One mistake with beginners in writing is, that they think it important to spin out something long. It is a great deal better not to write more than a page or two, unless you have something to say, and can write it correctly.

Read over your compositions, and when you meet a passage which you think is particularly fine, strike it out.

Through an arbitrary problem, I had arrived at a tenet of good writing: brevity wins.

Wordiness is a sickness of American writing. Too many words dilute and blur ideas.

Use no superfluous word, no adjective, which does not reveal something.

Use half as many words and they'll hit twice as hard.

I'm going to make a long speech because I've not had the time to prepare a short one.

Let us not write at a loose rambling rate, in hope the world will wink at all our faults.

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

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

I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.

The point of good writing is knowing when to stop.