Economy of Language Quotes

To use many words to communicate few thoughts is everywhere the unmistakable sign of mediocrity. To gather much thought into few words stamps the man of genius.

We know that he has, more than any other man, the gift of compressing the largest amount of words into the smallest amount of thought.

Men who have much to say use the fewest words.

I love the right words. I think economy and precision of language are important.

Much modern prose is praised for its terseness, its scrupulous avoidance of curlicue, etcetera. But I don't feel the deeper rhythm there. I don't think these writers are being terse out of choice. I think they are being terse because it's the only way they can write.

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

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

I always feel that whatever isn't necessary shouldn't be in a poem.

Good style in prose is always hostage to the precision, speed, and laconic intensity of poetic diction.

Say what you have to say in the fewest possible words.

The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.

Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts.

Omit needless words.

Television has taught me an economy of style I didn't have before. I feel it has done me nothing but good.

I'm a much better filmmaker than painter. But studying it did make me visually acute and taught me lessons like being economic: Say something once and you don't have to say it again.

When you catch an adjective, kill it.

Cross out as many adjectives and adverbs as you can. ... It is comprehensible when I write: "The man sat on the grass," because it is clear and does not detain one's attention. On the other hand, it is difficult to figure out and hard on the brain if I write: "The tall, narrow-chested man of medium height and with a red beard sat down on the green grass that had already been trampled down by the pedestrians, sat down silently, looking around timidly and fearfully." The brain can't grasp all that at once, and art must be grasped at once, instantaneously.

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

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

Now every time I start to put a word on paper, I’ll wonder whether it’s an expensive $10 word, or a little, unimportant word like ‘is’ or ‘and’ that only costs $1.75.

Well I don't feel sectarian against sparseness, although I sometimes get a little chippy about this. I resent the way that a certain notion of parsimony has become the norm for skilful literary writing.

My writing tends to become very dense, so I have to keep some cushion. Sometimes, words that seem superfluous are actually essential for the overall effect.

I still read Hemingway. I still read his short stories because they're so good. He doesn't waste any words.

Generally, the more words you use to say something, the less power those words have.

Writing is learning to say nothing, more cleverly each day.