Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
Writing that reads easily requires significant effort and skill to produce.
In plain terms
Making writing easy to read takes a lot of hard work.
What can you take from it?
Easy reading requires hard writing.

Where it applies

  • editing
  • content creation
  • teaching

Putting it to work

  • revise thoroughly
  • prioritize clarity

Questions to consider

  • Why is clear writing difficult?
  • How do you simplify complex ideas?

Another view

Some complex topics inherently require complex writing.

More from Nathaniel Hawthorne

  1. Happiness is like a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.

    Permalink to quote #62
  2. Clio's Protest, or the Picture Varnished (written 1771, published 1819) by Richard Brinsley Sheridan

    Permalink to quote #64
  3. Of all the events which constitute a person's biography, there is scarcely one - none, certainly, of anything like a similar importance - to which the world so…

    Permalink to quote #61

Related quotes

  1. You write with ease to show your breeding, But easy writing's curst hard reading.

    Richard Brinsley SheridanRichard Brinsley Sheridan quote #4
  2. When you write a story, you're telling yourself the story...When you rewrite, your main job is taking out all the things that are not the story.

    Stephen KingStephen King quote #115
  3. Poetry must be as well written as prose.

    Ezra PoundEzra Pound quote #2