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Simplicity In Writing Quotes & Sayings

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Simplicity In Writing Quotes By Ken Scott

Why use long words when short ones will do? Not all readers have been to college or university. — Ken Scott

Simplicity In Writing Quotes By Thomas Merton

My own personal task is not simply that of poet and writer (still less commentator, pseudo-prophet); it is basically to praise God out of an inner center of silence, gratitude, and 'awareness.' This can be realized in a life that apparently accomplishes nothing. Without centering on accomplishment or nonaccomplishment, my task is simply the breathing of this gratitude from day to day, in simplicity, and for the rest turning my hand to whatever comes, work being part of praise, whether splitting logs or writing poems, or best of all simple notes. — Thomas Merton

Simplicity In Writing Quotes By James Baldwin

(As your experience about writing accrues) you learn how little you know. It becomes much more difficult because the hardest thing in the world is simplicity. And the most fearful thing, too. It becomes more difficult because you have to strip yourself of all your disguises, some of which you didn't know you had. — James Baldwin

Simplicity In Writing Quotes By Hermann Hesse

He read the veinings of a leaf, the pattern on a mushroom cap, and divined mysteries, relations, futures, possibilities: the magic of symbols, the foreshadowing of numbers and writing, the reduction of infinitudes and multiplicities to simplicity, to system, to concept. For all these ways of comprehending the world through the mind no doubt lay within him, nameless, unnamed, but not inconceivable, not beyond the bounds of presentiment, still in the germ, but essential to his nature, part of him, growing organically within him. And if we were to go still further back beyond this Rainmaker and his time which to us seems so early and primitive, if we were to go several thousand years further back into the past, wherever we found man we would still find - this is our firm belief - the mind of man, that mind which has no beginning and always has contained everything that it later produces. — Hermann Hesse

Simplicity In Writing Quotes By Alain De Botton

Being incomprehensible offers unparalleled protection against having nothing to say ... but writing with simplicity requires courage, for there is a danger that one will be overlooked, dismissed as simpleminded by those with a tenacious belief that the impassable prose is a hallmark of intelligence. — Alain De Botton

Simplicity In Writing Quotes By Arthur Schopenhauer

One should use common words to say uncommon things — Arthur Schopenhauer

Simplicity In Writing Quotes By Noah Lukeman

Personally, I am always more impressed by simplicity, clarity; it is the mark of a writer who knows his subject well and is secure enough not to 'lay it on' in the telling. Aim for complexity of thought, not expression. — Noah Lukeman

Simplicity In Writing Quotes By Isaac Asimov

I made up my mind long ago to follow one cardinal rule in all my writing - to be clear. I have given up all thought of writing poetically or symbolically or experimentally, or in any of the other modes that might (if I were good enough) get me a Pulitzer prize. I would write merely clearly and in this way establish a warm relationship between myself and my readers, and the professional critics - Well, they can do whatever they wish. — Isaac Asimov

Simplicity In Writing Quotes By William Feather

To make yourself understood you have to think plain and write plain. — William Feather

Simplicity In Writing Quotes By Fanny Burney

How truly does this journal contain my real and undisguised thoughts
I always write it according to the humour I am in, and if astranger was to think it worth reading, how capricious
insolent & whimsical I must appear!
one moment flighty and half mad,
the next sad and melancholy. No matter! Its truth and simplicity are its sole recommendations. — Fanny Burney

Simplicity In Writing Quotes By R.S. Thomas

A recurring ideal, I find, is that of simplicity. At times there comes the desire to write with great precision and clarity, words so simple and moving that they bring tears to the eyes. — R.S. Thomas

Simplicity In Writing Quotes By Kurt Vonnegut

Vonnegut along with critically acclaimed novelists like Lawrence Durrell and Iris Murdoch, Scholes explained that Vonnegut uses the rhetorical potential of the short sentence and short paragraph better than anyone now writing, often getting a rich comic or dramatic effect by isolating a single sentence in a separate paragraph or excerpting a phrase from context for a bizarre chapter-heading. The apparent simplicity and ordinariness of his writing mask its efficient power ... — Kurt Vonnegut

Simplicity In Writing Quotes By Hal David

In writing, I search for believability, simplicity and emotional impact. — Hal David

Simplicity In Writing Quotes By Bernard Cornwell

And yes, there's a simplicity to writing books because you're not a member of a team, so you make all the decisions yourself instead of deferring to a committee. — Bernard Cornwell

Simplicity In Writing Quotes By William Hazlitt

Any one may mouth out a passage with a theatrical cadence, or get upon stilts to tell his thoughts; but to write or speak with propriety and simplicity is a more difficult task. Thus it is easy to affect a pompous style, to use a word twice as big as the thing you want to express; it is not so easy to pitch upon the very word that exactly fits it. — William Hazlitt

Simplicity In Writing Quotes By William Zinsser

Four basic premises of writing: clarity, brevity, simplicity, and humanity. — William Zinsser

Simplicity In Writing Quotes By Rajneesh

Every child is simple, just a clean slate. Then the parents start writing on his slate - what he has to become. Then the teachers, the priests, the leaders - they all go on emphasizing that you have to become somebody; otherwise, you have wasted your life. Just the opposite is the case. You are a being. You need not become anybody else. That is the meaning of simplicity: remaining at ease with one's being, and not going on any track of becoming - which is unending. — Rajneesh

Simplicity In Writing Quotes By Maximus The Confessor

A pure heart is perhaps one which has no natural propulsion towards anything in any manner whatsoever. When in its extreme simplicity such a heart has become like a writing-tablet beautifully smoothed and polished, God comes to dwell in it and writes there His own laws. — Maximus The Confessor

Simplicity In Writing Quotes By Anita Brookner

My idea of absolute happiness is to sit in a hot garden all, reading, or writing, utterly safe in the knowledge that the person I love will come home to me in the evening. Every evening.'
'You are a romantic, Edith,' repeated Mr Neville, with a smile.
'It is you who are wrong,' she replied. 'I have been listening to that particular accusation for most of my life. I am not a romantic. I am a domestic animal. I do not sigh and yearn for extravagant displays of passion, for the grand affair, the world well lost for love. I know all that, and know that it leaves you lonely. No, what I crave is the simplicity of routine. An evening walk, arm in arm, in fine weather. A game of cards. Time for idle talk. Preparing a meal together. — Anita Brookner

Simplicity In Writing Quotes By Charles Bukowski

Simplicity is always the secret, to a profound truth, to doing things, to writing, to painting. Life is profound in its simplicity. — Charles Bukowski

Simplicity In Writing Quotes By Milena Michiko Flasar

Am I still writing? Unthinkable not to. In the very darkest night the words were like shiny pebbles. They caught the light of the moon and stars and reflected it back. One word among them that shone especially brightly. Simplicity. I would approach it, stepping softly, regard it from all sides, finally pick it up, enchanted by it, recognize that its enchantment lay in its shine, its pure meaning. Simplicity. To simply be there. Simply keep going. The longer I kept going, the easier it was to see how beautiful, simply beautiful, it is to be here.

I would like to write about how this word shines. I'd like to write about the simplest things. — Milena Michiko Flasar

Simplicity In Writing Quotes By Joanna Scott

Writing that flirts with incoherence can just as readily flounder as writing characterized by simplicity and composure. There is no reliable formula for originality, and strategies that are distinguished as innovative in their first incarnation can quickly become stale in the hands of lesser artists. — Joanna Scott

Simplicity In Writing Quotes By Adam Gopnik

Often the block [in writing] comes from the wall of words that keep out the simplicity of sense. — Adam Gopnik

Simplicity In Writing Quotes By William Faulkner

When ideas come, I write them; when they don't come, I don't. — William Faulkner

Simplicity In Writing Quotes By Richelle E. Goodrich

The crazy thing about poetry is how its simplicity makes it complicated. — Richelle E. Goodrich

Simplicity In Writing Quotes By George Earle Buckle

To simplify complications is the first essential of success. — George Earle Buckle

Simplicity In Writing Quotes By Criss Jami

As a poet there is something about joy I find hard to express, whereas every other emotion is rather simple. For instance, you never feel so bad that you can't describe how bad you feel, but joy on the other hand is far too divine for human language. — Criss Jami

Simplicity In Writing Quotes By Alain De Botton

In literature, too, we admire prose in which a small and astutely arranged set of words has been constructed to carry a large consignment of ideas. 'We all have strength enough to bear the misfortunes of others,' writes La Rochefoucauld in an aphorism which transports us with an energy and exactitude comparable to that of Maillard bridge. The Swiss engineer reduces the number of supports just as the French writer compacts into a single line what lesser minds might have taken pages to express. We delight in complexity to which genius has lent an appearance of simplicity. (p 207) — Alain De Botton

Simplicity In Writing Quotes By Baron De Montesquieu

Great commanders write their actions with simplicity; because they receive more glory from facts than from words. — Baron De Montesquieu

Simplicity In Writing Quotes By Paulo Coelho

Elegance isn't a superficial thing, it's the way mankind has found to honor life and work. That's why, when you feel uncomfortable in that position, you mustn't think that it's false or artificial: it's real and true precisely because it's difficult. That position means that both the paper and the brush feel proud of the effort you're making. The paper ceases to be a flat, colorless surface and takes on the depth of the things placed on it. Elegance is the correct posture if the writing is to be perfect. It's the same with life: when all superfluous things have been discarded, we discover simplicity and concentration. The simpler and more sober the posture, the more beautiful it will be, even though, at first, it may seem uncomfortable. — Paulo Coelho

Simplicity In Writing Quotes By Stephen King

The simplicity of noun-verb construction is useful - at the very least it can provide a safety net for your writing. — Stephen King

Simplicity In Writing Quotes By Steven Pinker

The guiding metaphor of classic style is seeing the world. The writer can see something that the reader has not yet noticed, and he orients the reader's gaze so that she can see it for herself. The purpose of writing is presentation, and its motive is disinterested truth. It succeeds when it aligns language with the truth, the proof of success being clarity and simplicity. The truth can be known, and is not the same as the language that reveals it; prose is a window onto the world. The writer knows the truth before putting it into words; he is not using the occasion of writing to sort out what he thinks. Nor does the writer of classic prose have to argue for the truth; he just needs to present it. That is because the reader is competent and can recognize the truth when she sees it, as long as she is given an unobstructed view. The writer and the reader are equals, and the process of directing the reader's gaze takes the form of a conversation. — Steven Pinker

Simplicity In Writing Quotes By Elsie De Wolfe

It does not matter whether one paints a picture, writes a poem, or carves a statue - simplicity is the mark of a master-hand ... — Elsie De Wolfe

Simplicity In Writing Quotes By Stephen King

I used to hammer away at the idea of simplicity.
In both fiction and non-fiction, there's only one question and one answer. 'What happened?' the reader asks. 'This is what happened,' the writer responds. 'This ... and this ... and this, too.' Keep it simple. It's the only sure way home. — Stephen King

Simplicity In Writing Quotes By Eric S. Raymond

Ugly programs are like ugly suspension bridges: they're much more liable to collapse than pretty ones, because the way humans (especially engineer-humans) perceive beauty is intimately related to our ability to process and understand complexity. A language that makes it hard to write elegant code makes it hard to write good code. — Eric S. Raymond

Simplicity In Writing Quotes By Ben Okri

Reading, therefore, is a co-production between writer and reader. The simplicity of this tool is astounding. So little, yet out of it whole worlds, eras, characters, continents, people never encountered before, people you wouldn't care to sit next to in a train, people that don't exist, places you've never visited, enigmatic fates, all come to life in the mind, painted into existence by the reader's creative powers. In this way the creativity of the writer calls up the creativity of the reader. Reading is never passive. — Ben Okri

Simplicity In Writing Quotes By Coco J. Ginger

Elegant writers depict intricacy with simplicity. — Coco J. Ginger

Simplicity In Writing Quotes By Jean-Paul Sartre

Many young people today do not concern themselves with style. They think that what one says should be said simply and that is all. For me, style - which does not exclude simplicity, quite the opposite - is above all a way of saying three or four things in one. There is the simple sentence, with its immediate meaning, and then at the same time, below this immediate meaning, other meanings are organized. If one is not capable of giving language this plurality of meaning, then it is not worth the trouble to write. — Jean-Paul Sartre

Simplicity In Writing Quotes By Ruskin Bond

People often ask me why my style is so simple. It is, in fact, deceptively simple, for no two sentences are alike. It is clarity that I am striving to attain, not simplicity.
Of course, some people want literature to be difficult and there are writers who like to make their readers toil and sweat. They hope to be taken more seriously that way. I have always tried to achieve a prose that is easy and conversational. And those who think this is simple should try it for themselves. — Ruskin Bond

Simplicity In Writing Quotes By Jonathan Swift

The translators of the Bible were masters of an English style much fitter for that work than any we see in our present writings; the which is owing to the simplicity that runs through the whole. — Jonathan Swift

Simplicity In Writing Quotes By Jack Kerouac

One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple. — Jack Kerouac

Simplicity In Writing Quotes By Stephen Leacock

Writing is no trouble: you just jot down ideas as they occur to you. The jotting is simplicity itself
it is the occurring which is difficult. — Stephen Leacock

Simplicity In Writing Quotes By Anne Lamott

Becoming a writer is about becoming conscious. When you're conscious and writing from a place of insight and simplicity and real caring about the truth, you have the ability to throw the lights on for your reader. He or she will recognize his or her life and truth in what you say, in the pictures you have painted, and this decreases the terrible sense of isolation that we have all had too much of. — Anne Lamott

Simplicity In Writing Quotes By Jean Baudrillard

The real joy of writing lies in the opportunity of being able to sacrifice a whole chapter for a single sentence, a complete sentence for a single word... — Jean Baudrillard

Simplicity In Writing Quotes By Alan Sillitoe

The art of writing is to explain the complications of the human soul with the simplicity that can be universally understood. — Alan Sillitoe

Simplicity In Writing Quotes By Anne Lamott

When you're conscious and writing from a place of insight and simplicity and real caring about the truth, you have the ability to throw the lights on for your reader. — Anne Lamott

Simplicity In Writing Quotes By William P. Alford

Elegance of language may not be in the power of all of us; but simplicity and straight forwardness are. Write much as you would speak; speak as you think. If with your inferior, speak no coarser than usual; if with your superiors, no finer. — William P. Alford

Simplicity In Writing Quotes By Gary Louris

I can't write from the subconscious actually, because a lot of the time when I co-write with other people, I'm writing for them as opposed to for myself. When it comes to lyrics, I tend to want to give them their voice, since it's most likely going to be on their record, or somebody else's record. And I find for more commerial-style music, people want simplicity, less vagueness, and less space to fill between the lines, so to speak. So I can't be quite as ethereal and mystical. — Gary Louris

Simplicity In Writing Quotes By A.D. Posey

Simplicity is efficient. — A.D. Posey

Simplicity In Writing Quotes By William Zinsser

My four articles of faith: clarity, simplicity, brevity and humanity. — William Zinsser

Simplicity In Writing Quotes By Edward Abbey

To the Technocrats: Have mercy on us. Relax a bit, take time out for simple pleasures. For example, the luxuries of electricity, indoor plumbing, central heating, instant electronic communication and such, have taught me to relearn and enjoy the basic human satisfactions of dipping water from a cold clear mountain stream; of building a wood fire in a cast-iron stove; of using long winter nights for making music, making things, making love; of writing long letters, in longhand with a fountain pen, to the few people on this earth I truly care about. — Edward Abbey

Simplicity In Writing Quotes By Bruce Ramsey

On economic matters Garrett had a brilliant simplicity. In November 1913, while editor of the Annalist, he began a monthly column on money in Everybody's, writing as John Parr. One of the most common questions from readers was why the government simply didn't print money to spend on public works, instead of borrowing it at interest. It was a variant of the Coxey idea. Garrett explained that money is not wealth, but a claim on wealth, and that you do not add to wealth by creating more claims to it.4 — Bruce Ramsey