Your language becomes clear and strong, not when you can no longer add a sentence, but when you can no longer take away from it.

Isaac Babel

Quoted in The New Yorker

More information about this quote

Topic

Writing

Speaker

Isaac Babel

Source

The New Yorker

Medium

Magazine

Statement Type

Writing advice

Language

English

Time

1940 1940s 20th century

Occupation

Writer

From

Ukraine Europe

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Babel, Isaac. Quoted in "Hide and Seek: The Complete Isaac Babel." Written by John Updike. The New Yorker, 28 Oct. 2001.

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Related Quotes

Below are one or more quotes that share at least one tag with the quote at the top of the page

Another quote from the 1940s

Sixteen hours ago an American airplane dropped one bomb on Hiroshima... The force from which the sun draws its power has been loosed against those who brought war to the Far East.

Harry Truman

More information about this quote
Topic
Nuclear weapons World War II
Speaker
Harry Truman
Medium
Speech
Genre
Political speech
Language
English
Time
1945 1940s 20th century
Authentication Score 3
Citation

Truman, Harry S. First announcement of the atomic bomb. 6 Aug. 1945, The White House, Washington, DC, USA.

Another quote about Writing

Yeah, I try to leave out the parts that people skip.

Elmore Leonard

More information about this quote
Topic
Writing

Author

Elmore Leonard
Language
English
Time
1985 1980s 20th century
Authentication Score 1
Citation

Leonard, Elmore. Spoken during Book-of-the-Month Club luncheon. Luncheon. c. 1985, USA.

Another quote from 1940

It is a funny thing about life, if you refuse to accept anything but the best you very often get it: if you utterly decline to make do with what you can get, then somehow or other you are very likely to get what you want.

W. Somerset Maugham

More information about this quote
Topic
Getting what you want

Author

W. Somerset Maugham
Language
English
Time
1940 1940s 20th century
Authentication Score 3
Citation

Maugham, William Somerset. "The Treasure." The Mixture as Before. William Heinemann/Doubleday Doran, 1940.