Books Quote by V. S. Naipaul

Writing shouldn't come between the reader and what's being described. It should be as transparent as possible.

— Diana Athill

Good prose should be transparent, like a window pane.

— George Orwell

“I want my writing to be as clear as water I can see through so that what I experienced is told without my being…

— John Cage

Write beautifully what people don’t want to hear.

— Frederick Seidel

We should not write so that it is possible for the reader to understand us, but so that it is impossible for him to…

— Quintilian

Prose is not to be read aloud but to oneself alone at night, and it is not quick as poetry but rather a gathering…

— Henry Green

A writer should write what he has to say and not speak it.

— Ernest Hemingway

What I'm constantly striving for in my prose is clarity. So that, ideally, the writing will become so transparent that the reader will forget…

— Jonathan Lethem

“If any man wish to write in a clear style, let him be first clear in his thoughts.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

What you're trying to do when you write is to crowd the reader out of his own space and occupy it with yours, in…

— Robert Stone

Writing is both my expression to the world and my way to hide from it - you get who I am without actually seeing…

— Paige

“A scrupulous writer, in every sentence that he writes, will ask himself at least four questions, thus: 1. What am I trying to say?…

— George Orwell