{"id":13580,"date":"2016-02-05T08:14:32","date_gmt":"2016-02-05T12:14:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wyliecomm.com\/?page_id=13580"},"modified":"2023-12-27T12:04:52","modified_gmt":"2023-12-27T16:04:52","slug":"quotes-on-writing-short-content","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.wyliecomm.com\/writing-tips\/what-is-readability\/short-content\/quotes-on-writing-short-content\/","title":{"rendered":"Quotes on writing short content"},"content":{"rendered":"

What writers & others say<\/h2>\n

\"Quotes

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\u201cThere is nothing wrong with having nothing to say \u2014 unless you insist on saying it.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Anonymous<\/h6>\n
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\u201cThe covers of this book are too far apart.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Ambrose Bierce, 19th-century American journalist<\/h6>\n
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“Deliver your words not by number but by weight.”<\/h5>\n
\u2014 H.G. Bohn, British publisher<\/h6>\n
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“bloated syntax: Anything that’s overwritten \u2014 often padded with unnecessary adjectives or laden with hyperbole. Also appropriately known as ‘BS.'”<\/h5>\n
\u2014BuzzWhack<\/h6>\n
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“Brevity is the sister of talent.”<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Anton Chekhov, Russian playwright<\/h6>\n
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“When you have nothing to say, say nothing.”<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Charles Caleb Colton, English writer<\/h6>\n
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\u201cSay what you have to say and the first time you come to a sentence with a grammatical ending \u2014 sit down.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Winston Churchill, two-time Prime Minister of the United Kingdom<\/h6>\n
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“Words have to be crafted, not sprayed.”<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Norman Cousins, the late editor in chief of the Saturday Review<\/em><\/h6>\n
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“I’ve read 80-inch stories that I could have read another 20 inches on. And I’ve read 10-inch stories that were too long. So, it all depends on \u2026 how was it done? What’s the reporting? How’s the writing? Is it a topic that really engages and captivates?”<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Michael Days, editor of the Philadelphia Daily News<\/em><\/h6>\n
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\u201cWords, words, words \u2014 I\u2019m so sick of words.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Eliza Doolittle to Professor Higgins in My Fair Lady<\/em><\/h6>\n
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“Let the speech be short, comprehending much in few words.”<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Ecclesiastes<\/h6>\n
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“The more you say, the less people remember.”<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Fortune in a cookie opened by a writer<\/h6>\n
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“Loquacity and lying are cousins.”<\/h5>\n
\u2014 German Proverb<\/h6>\n
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\u201cBusiness plans with too much detail, books with too much proof, politicians with too much granularity \u2026 it seems as though more data is a good thing, because data proves the case.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Seth Godin, author of Purple Cow<\/em><\/h6>\n
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\u201cIn my experience, data crowds out faith. And without faith, it\u2019s hard to believe in the data enough to make a leap. Big mergers, big VC investments, big political movements, large congregations \u2026 they don\u2019t usually turn out for a spreadsheet.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014Seth Godin, author of Purple Cow<\/em><\/h6>\n
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\u201cThe problem is this: No spreadsheet, no bibliography and no list of resources is sufficient proof to someone who chooses not to believe. The skeptic will always find a reason, even if it\u2019s one the rest of us don\u2019t think is a good one. Relying too much on proof distracts you from the real mission \u2014 which is emotional connection.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Seth Godin, author of Purple Cow<\/em><\/h6>\n
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\u201cMore information doesn\u2019t always improve decision-making; in fact, it can undermine it.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Judith H. Hibbard and Ellen Peters, researchers<\/h6>\n
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\u201cMost presentations of comparative information are based on the assumption that consumers know what is important to them and where their self-interest lies. These assumptions are faulty.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Judith H. Hibbard and Ellen Peters, researchers<\/h6>\n
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\u201cThe amount of information may exceed human information processing skills.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Judith H. Hibbard and Ellen Peters, researchers<\/h6>\n
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“A talk need not be eternal to be immortal.”<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Muriel Humphrey, to her husband, Hubert<\/h6>\n
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\u201cWhen people had too many choices, they just walked away.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014Sheena Iyengar, author of\u00a0The Art of Choosing<\/em><\/h6>\n
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“My father said whoever tells the longest story is the liar. The truth isn’t that complicated.”<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Bill Joy, chief technology wizard for Sun Microsystems<\/h6>\n
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\u201cIn ten years of listening to entrepreneurs\u2019 pitches, I\u2019ve never heard one that was too short. If people are interested, they\u2019ll ask for more information. If they\u2019re not, providing more information won\u2019t sway them, so use fewer words to express yourself.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Guy Kawasaki in Enchantment<\/em><\/h6>\n
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“He can compress the most words into the smallest idea of any man I know.”<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States<\/h6>\n
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“It is better to keep one’s mouth shut and be thought a fool than to open it and resolve all doubt.”<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States<\/h6>\n
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“The struggle is against words, words, words. And every word has to count.”<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Samuel Menashe, New York poet, and recipient of the Poetry Foundation’s first Neglected Masters Award<\/h6>\n
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“After all is said and done, a hell lot of a lot more is said than done.”<\/h5>\n
\u2014 H.L. Mencken, 20th-century journalist, sage, critic and curmudgeon<\/h6>\n
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“Simple and clean \u2026 beats complicated and long.”<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Steve Milunovich, Merrill Lynch’s technology strategist<\/h6>\n
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“Put it before them briefly so they will read it, clearly so they will appreciate it, picturesquely so they will remember it and, above all, accurately so they will be guided by its light.”<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Joseph Pulitzer, owner of The New York World<\/em> who established the Pulitzer Prize<\/h6>\n
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“Be silent, or say something better than silence.”<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Pythagoras, mathematician and philosopher<\/h6>\n
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“Be sincere, be brief, be seated.”<\/h5>\n
\u2014 President Franklin D. Roosevelt advising his son, James, on speechmaking<\/h6>\n
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\u201cYou\u2019re not more informed. You\u2019re just numbed.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Tom Rosenstiel, former media critic for the\u00a0Los Angeles Times<\/em><\/h6>\n
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“Men of few words are the best men.”<\/h5>\n
\u2014 William Shakespeare, English poet and playwright widely regarded as the greatest writer of the English language<\/h6>\n
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\u201cLeave them wanting less.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Martin Short, comedian, quoting a Broadway actor<\/h6>\n
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“Summarize Your First Sexual Experience In One Word Or Less: “Less.”<\/h5>\n
\u2014 “Is this the world’s shortest poem?” St. Paul Pioneer Press,<\/em> May 1, 1998<\/h6>\n
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\u201cNot that the story need be long, but it will take a long while to make it short.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Henry David Thoreau, American essayist, poet, and philosopher<\/h6>\n
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“Fewer words = clearer point.”<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Pete Weissman, a national political speechwriter in Washington<\/h6>\n
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“I have often regretted my speech, never my silence.”<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Xenocrates, Greek philosopher, 396 BC to 314 BC<\/h6>\n
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\u201cNow close your eyes and go to sleep or Daddy will read you more of his novel.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 New Yorker cartoon by Danny Shanahan<\/h6>\n
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