Quotes About Simplicity In Writing

#1. To simplify complications is the first essential of success.

George Earle Buckle

#2. When ideas come, I write them; when they don't come, I don't.

William Faulkner

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

Stephen King

#4. 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

#5. 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

#6. The crazy thing about poetry is how its simplicity makes it complicated.

Richelle E. Goodrich

#7. My four articles of faith: clarity, simplicity, brevity and humanity.

William Zinsser

#8. 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

#9. One should use common words to say uncommon things

Arthur Schopenhauer

#10. Four basic premises of writing: clarity, brevity, simplicity, and humanity.

William Zinsser

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

Ken Scott

#12. 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

#13. Simplicity is efficient.

A.D. Posey

#14. 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

#15. 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

#16. 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

#17. 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

#18. Often the block [in writing] comes from the wall of words that keep out the simplicity of sense.

Adam Gopnik

#19. Elegant writers depict intricacy with simplicity.

Coco J. Ginger

#20. 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

#21. 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

#22. 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

#23. Simplicity is always the secret, to a profound truth, to doing things, to writing, to painting. Life is profound in its simplicity.

Charles Bukowski

#24. In writing, I search for believability, simplicity and emotional impact.

Hal David

#25. 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

#26. To make yourself understood you have to think plain and write plain.

William Feather

#27. One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple.

Jack Kerouac

#28. 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

#29. Great commanders write their actions with simplicity; because they receive more glory from facts than from words.

Baron De Montesquieu

#30. The art of writing is to explain the complications of the human soul with the simplicity that can be universally understood.

Alan Sillitoe