David Longstreth Quotes

Uncommon things must be said in common words.

There is nothing in philosophy which could not be said in everyday language.

Speak properly, and in as few words as you can, but always plainly; for the end of speech is not ostentation, but to be understood.

I've simplified much more in my writing. I say what I've got to say, not in metaphor.

It seems to me that politicians ought to use the same words as other people.

I analyse in my own way, in very simple, no-jargon language. If somebody is talking in very complicated way, I never like that.

Parla come magni,' It means, 'Speak the way you eat,' or in my personal translation: 'Say it like you eat it.' It's a reminder - when you're making a big deal out of explaining something, when you're searching for the right words - to keep your language as simple and direct as Roman rood. Don't make a big production out of it. Just lay it on the table.

Successful writers learn at last what they should learn at first,--to be intelligently simple.

Words can be deceitful, but pantomime necessarily is simple, clear and direct

Simplicity is all. Simple logic, simple arguments, simple visual images. If you can't reduce your argument to a few crisp words and phrases, there's something wrong with your argument. There's nothing long-winded about 'Liberté, égalité, fraternité'.

The motif must always be set down in a simple way, easily grasped and understood by the beholder. By the elimination of superfluous detail, the spectator should be led along the road that the artist indicates to him, and from the first be made to notice what the artist has felt.

The simpler the message, the broader the meaning, in many respects.

It is far more difficult to be simple than to be complicated.

I knew lots of Irish ladies in my life who would say daft things and then would just say something incredibly truthful in a very simple way with simple language - a few well chosen words that would take an intellectual five minutes to express. I like that.

Any idiot can be complicated. It takes a genius to be simple.

Quite apart from the prestige of technology, people do, after all, prefer a simple idea to a complex one.

That 'simple desire' to share something meant that we could enter the world of language without words, where everything is always clear and there is no danger of being misinterpreted.

I admire writers who can make complicated things simple, but my own talent has been to make simple things complicated.

"Simple" is a tricky word, it can mean a lot of things. To us, it just means clear. That doesn't always mean total reduction, or minimalism - sometimes, to make things clearer, you have to add a step.

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.

The lyrics aren't simple, either. They're extremely difficult because I'm trying to say complicated things in as few words as possible.

Few things concentrate the mind more efficiently than the necessity of saying what you mean. It brings you face to face with what you are talking about, what you are actually proposing. It gets you away from the catch phrases that not merely substitute for thought but preclude it.

I write from my knowledge not my lack, from my strength not my weakness. I am not interested if anyone knows whether or not I am familiar with big words, I am interested in trying to render big ideas in a simple way. I am interested in being understood not admired.

Don't use a five-dollar word when a fifty-cent word will do.

Say all you have to say in the fewest possible words, or your reader will be sure to skip them; and in the plainest possible words or he will certainly misunderstand them.