Concise Writing Quotes

A lot of critics think I'm stupid because my sentences are so simple and my method is so direct: they think these are defects. No. The point is to write as much as you know as quickly as possible.

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

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

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

I hope that my ideas attract a lively dialogue, even if my sentences are simple. Simple sentences have always served me well. And I don't use semicolons. It's hard to read anyway, especially for high school kids. Also, I avoid irony, too. I don't like people saying one thing and meaning the other.

Short, sweet, and to the point. Clear writing, and therefore clear commands, comes from clear thinking. Think simple.

I think the best advice I give is to try not to write. Try not to overwrite, try not to make it sound too good. Just use your own voice. Use your own style of putting it down.

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.

Substitute 'damn' every time you're inclined to write 'very'; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.

Reverend Fathers, my letters did not usually follow each other at such close intervals, nor were they so long.... This one would not be so long had I but the leisure to make it shorter.

Never use a verb other than "said" to carry dialogue... I once noticed Mary McCarthy ending a line of dialogue with "she asseverated" and had to stop reading and go to the dictionary.

Brevity is a great charm of eloquence.

For me, good description usually consists of a few well-chosen details that will stand for everything else.

As a historian, I love every little detail, but whole long passages about wood paneling and journeys on horseback and every stop at every inn had to go out the window. I decided the history in the books should be like spice in a soup - a little went a long way. Like cilantro.

If you consistently write 'The sun set' rather than 'The sun sank slowly in the bright western sky,' your story will move three times as fast. Of course, there are times you want the longer version for atmosphere - but not many. Wordiness not only kills pace; it bores readers.

Anyone should be very suspicious of a sentence he's written that can't be read aloud easily.

If I had more time, I would have written less.

Neither is a dictionary a bad book to read. There is no can't in it, no excess of explanation, and it is full of suggestion, the raw material of possible poems and histories.

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

I think that as you learn more about writing you learn to be direct.

Aim for brevity while avoiding jargon.

I think my blog is fairly circumspect and elliptical. I've written personal essays, but they are short and to the point: in and out, and that's that.

I take six or seven years to write really small books. There is a kind of aesthetic of leanness, of brevity.

Long note? Yes. Make it seem short.

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