I particularly liked this quote from Zinsser’s Wikipedia entry:

In his books, Zinsser emphasizes word economy. Author James J. Kilpatrick, in his book The Writer’s Art says that if he were limited to just one book on how to write, it would be William Zinsser’s On Writing Well. Adds Kilpatrick, “Zinsser’s sound theory is that ‘writing improves in direct ratio to the number of things we can keep out of it.”

On a similar note, in a tongue-in-cheek April Fools’ Day article from The Guardian (on how the paper is switching exclusively to Twitter “after 188 years of ink”) there’s the quote: “Experts say any story can be told in 140 characters”. A more extreme version of the same premise that made me chuckle.

“As an editor I knew that almost anything can be cut to 300 words;”

- How true!

Thanks,
Andy