Cutting Words Quotes

I can always make things longer than I intend for them to be, but cutting things down is just brutal. It's like cutting off your fingers every time you lose a word.

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

What is a quote? A quote (cognate with quota) is a cut, a section, a slice of someone's orange. You suck the slice, toss the rind, skate away.

There are words which cut like steel.

Sometimes words drew blood, they cut your tongue, they made you know things you couldn't unknow.

People need to realize bullying has just as much of an impact online because words are so cutting and difficult to deal with.

In France we can cauterize wounds but we do not yet know any remedy for the injuries inflicted by a bon mot.

She speaks poniards, and every word stabs.

Of every four words I write, I strike out three.

Children are brutal and have no malice, which makes everything they say horribly cutting.

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.