Word Economy Quotes

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

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.

He who thinks much says but little in proportion to his thoughts. He selects that language which will convey his ideas in the most explicit and direct manner. He tries to compress as much thought as possible into a few words. On the contrary, the man who talks everlastingly and promiscuously, who seems to have an exhaustless magazine of sound, crowds so many words into his thoughts that he always obscures, and very frequently conceals them.

We don't communicate in full sentences anyway. We don't need all those words.

He can compress the most words into the smallest idea of any man I know.

I write the occasional poem. I think my dabbling in poetry makes me better at screenplays. Poetry teaches the value of condensing, the importance of talking in a few words.

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

Lyrically, 'less words mean more' is a pretty good rule of thumb. Try to cut out the fat and get to the meat of what you're saying.

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

I've really tried to strip my writing of as many adjectives and adverbs as I possibly can.

I think in most cases, unless you're writing about a character who is garrulous, you say what you've got to say and then get out. Those little conjunctions, those little turnaround words help you do it. That's the way I like to write: I get rid of things rather than add them.

Use half as many words and they'll hit twice as hard.

English may be the fastest moving language in the world, but there are plenty of concepts, sensations and everyday occurrences which lack a pithy word to describe them. Take the clunkiness of 'the day before yesterday' and 'the day after tomorrow': German provides single words for both.

Writing for children is murder. A chapter has to be boiled down to a paragraph. Every word has to count.

My father always said that too many words cheapened the value of a man's speech.

The most important lesson in the writing trade is that any manuscript is improved if you cut away the fat.

Omit needless words.

Once I started getting serious about standup I got a better handle on word economy and making jokes punchier, which translated well to Twitter.

In prose, you have a lot more room for digression, for very meaty kinds of dialogues. In graphic novels, you're writing haiku-length dialogue. Your job is to be efficient, to get out of the way of the art.

One great aim of revision is to cut out. In the exuberance of composition it is natural to throw in - as one does in speaking - a number of small words that add nothing to meaning but keep up the flow and rhythm of thought. In writing, not only does this surplusage not add to meaning, it subtracts from it. Read and revise, reread and revise, keeping reading and revising until your text seems adequate to your thought.

Writing is a hard gig, and it's hard to convey a lot. That's why scripts tend to be a little bit overwritten.

If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out

I want to write songs with complete sentences. I almos have this obsession with short-changing words. I would never be so pretentious to say that my lyrics are poetry. ... Poems are poems. Song lyrics are for songs.

The biggest influence on my books was the fact that I had worked in a newspaper for so long. In a daily paper, you learn to write very quickly; there is no time to sit and brood about what you are going to say.

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