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The genius of the French language, descended from its single Latin stock, has triumphed most in the contrary direction - in simplicity, in unity, in clarity, and in restraint.

The common faults of American language are an ambition of effect, a want of simplicity, and a turgid abuse of terms.

I write in the most classical French because this form is necessary for my novels: to translate the murky, floating, unsettling atmosphere I wanted them to have, I had to discipline it into the clearest, most traditional language possible.

One of the most misleading representational techniques in our language is the use of the word 'I.'

The conflation of the simple in style with the morally prescriptive in character, and the complex in style with the amoral or anarchic in character, seems to me one of the most persistently fallacious beliefs held by English students.

Simplicity is a key to avoiding complication. Part of the definition of simplicity is 'not complex or complicated; sincere.'

Because I write very simply, but inside the simplicity, there's a lot of subtlety. That's what I'm proud of.

Being German, I think we don't really express a lot of things.

Simplicity is the outcome of technical subtlety. It is the goal, not the starting point.

Verbosity leads to unclear, inarticulate things.