make it so simple a child
of six can understand the
words (if not the sense)
then take out all the words
that aren’t doing anything
useful so Ezra instructed me
breaking the point of his
pencil as he stabbed at
the offending words and
Bill told me also to make
it simple as simple as
something you might see
walking down Ridge Road
to the drugstore whatever
you see with your own eyes
can be real but make what
you saw as plain as you can.
—James Laughlin, “My Instructions”
Art Credit John Singer Sargent, The Master and His Pupils
