Compact Writing Quotes

You can't write a children's book that takes more than five or six minutes to read, because it will drive the parents batty. It has to be compact. Nobody thinks about the parents when they write these stupid books. I could write longer children's books, but it would actually be bad if I did.

I love short stories - reading and writing them. The best short stories distill all the potency of a novel into a small but heady draught. They are perfect reading material for the bus or train or for a lunchtime break. Everything extraneous has been strained off by the author. The best short stories pack the heft of any novel, yet resonate like poetry.

It's fun for me to try to write concise, compact things. It's a very good exercise for me. And I think it's important to try to do different things - change what I write about, and also the way I write. Otherwise, I'd just be repeating myself, which wouldn't be good for me or fair to my readers.

I tend to write short, brief snippets - I lean toward the chamber music end as opposed to the symphony end of things.

I seem to be drawn to these smaller forms, and I seem to be drawn to things that can be written and also read in one sitting.

Long sentences in a short composition are like large rooms in a little house.

I like books whose virtue is all drawn together in a page or two. I like sentences that don't budge though armies cross them.

I do have very small handwriting.