“[With] 140 words in Chinese, you really can write a novel. Most of Confucius’s sentences [are] only four words, so 140 words [might] take his whole life to write. And you can discuss the most profound ideas related to democracy, freedom, poetry.”

“Chairman Mao was the first in the world to use Twitter. All his quotations are within 140 words.”

Ai Weiwei (1957) Chinese concept artist

“Words, sentences, ideas, no matter how subtle or ingenious, the maddest flights of poetry, the most profound dreams, the most hallucinating visions, are but crude hieroglyphs chiseled in pain and sorrow to commemorate an event which is untransmissible.”

Henry Miller (1891–1980) American novelist

“If I could sum it up in 50 words, I wouldn't have needed to write a whole novel about it.”

Patrick Rothfuss (1973) American fantasy writer

“It takes me six months to do a story. I think it out and then write it sentence by sentence—no first draft. I can’t write five words but that I change seven.”

Dorothy Parker (1893–1967) American poet, short story writer, critic and satirist

“Freedom is… the right to write the wrong words.”

Patti Smith (1946) American singer-songwriter, poet and visual artist

“I’m a failed poet. Maybe every novelist wants to write poetry first, finds he can’t, and then tries the short story, which is the most demanding form after poetry. And, failing at that, only then does he take up novel writing.”

William Faulkner (1897–1962) American writer

“Good authors, too, who once knew better words
Now only use four-letter words
Writing prose —
Anything goes.”

Cole Porter (1891–1964) American composer and songwriter

“Writing cannot express all words, words cannot encompass all ideas.”

Confucius (-551–-479 BC) Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher

“A life spent writing has taught me to be wary of words. Those that seem clearest are often the most treacherous.”

Amin Maalouf book In the Name of Identity: Violence and the Need to Belong