Kenneth Roman > Quotes

“Someone asked Rodin how he could sculpt an elephant out of marble. It’s easy, he responded, “You just chip away everything that isn’t an elephant.” Chip away everything that isn’t your point.”
― Kenneth Roman, Writing That Works: How to Communicate Effectively in Business

“Be happy while you’re living, for you’re a long time dead,”
― Kenneth Roman, The King of Madison Avenue: David Ogilvy and the Making of Modern Advertising

“One executive suggests a discipline — putting down first what you want the reader to do, next the three most important things the reader needs to understand to take that action, then starting to write. When you’re done, he suggests asking yourself whether if you were the reader, would you take action on the basis of what is written.”
― Kenneth Roman, Writing That Works: How to Communicate Effectively in Business

“Most murky writing is inadvertent, a sincere if doomed effort to communicate. Far worse is the deliberate attempt to say something that you know readers won’t like in a way that you hope they won’t understand.”
― Kenneth Roman, Writing That Works: How to Communicate Effectively in Business

“Take the time to boil down what you want to say, and express it confidently in simple, declarative sentences. Remember the man who apologized for writing such a long letter, explaining that he didn’t have time to write a short one.”
― Kenneth Roman, Writing That Works: How to Communicate Effectively in Business

“There are only 266 words in the Gettysburg Address. The shortest sentence in the New Testament may be the most moving: “Jesus wept.”
― Kenneth Roman, Writing That Works: How to Communicate Effectively in Business

“Resource constrained instead of not enough people to do the job. Bake in the numbers instead of include. In the August timeframe instead of August. Tasked by the organization instead of assigned. The optics of the plan instead of how the plan will look. Double-click the point instead of emphasize. Drill down instead of analyze. Scope this out instead of check further. On a go-forward basis instead of in the future. Operationalized its goal, instead of achieved. Aggressively ramp headcount instead of hiring a lot of people. Or bandwidth — as in I don’t have the bandwidth (time) for that meeting or He doesn’t”
― Kenneth Roman, Writing That Works: How to Communicate Effectively in Business

“This style of talk is generally heard among middle managers. It seldom comes from the CEO, who, having risen to the top, is less interested in impressing people than in clear communications — and getting things done.”
― Kenneth Roman, Writing That Works: How to Communicate Effectively in Business

“Bad writing slows things down; good writing speeds them up.”
― Kenneth Roman, Writing That Works: How to Communicate Effectively in Business

“No sale, no commission. No commission, no eat. That left a mark on me.”
― Kenneth Roman, The King of Madison Avenue: David Ogilvy and the Making of Modern Advertising

“Yours truly” benefits from a lack of any specific silly meaning. It is as rooted in convention as “Dear George,” and useful for that reason.”
― Kenneth Roman, Writing That Works: How to Communicate Effectively in Business

“Down with advertising that forgets to promise the consumer any benefit. Down with creative show-offs. Too clever by half.    If you spend your advertising budget entertaining the consumer, you are a bloody fool. Housewives don’t buy a new detergent because the manufacturer told a joke on television last night. They buy it because it promised a benefit. If I could persuade the lunatics to give up their pursuit of awards, I would die happy.”
― Kenneth Roman, The King of Madison Avenue: David Ogilvy and the Making of Modern Advertising

“What comes after “Dear” is worth some thought. Use first names only when you’re already on a first-name basis. Don’t become anybody’s pen pal by unilateral action. Use titles — Dr., Judge, Professor, Senator — when they apply.”
― Kenneth Roman, Writing That Works: How to Communicate Effectively in Business

“A common mistake in business writing is to use quotation marks for emphasis: This bolt provides “superior” tensile strength. When the head of a large company put quotation marks around a word in an important paper, his administrative assistant asked him why he did that. He replied that it was to stress the truth of the point. The assistant asked whether it would stress the truth if he were to register at a hotel as John Durgin and “wife.”
― Kenneth Roman, Writing That Works: How to Communicate Effectively in Business

“If you can’t advertise yourself, what hope do you have of being able to advertise anything else?”
― Kenneth Roman, The King of Madison Avenue: David Ogilvy and the Making of Modern Advertising

“Bill Phillips, one of his successors as chairman, captured the spirit in his mantra: “Work hard. Play hard. Sleep fast.”
― Kenneth Roman, The King of Madison Avenue: David Ogilvy and the Making of Modern Advertising

“Woman without her man has no reason for living. With a colon and a comma, the writer would get a different reaction: Woman: without her, man has no reason for living.”
― Kenneth Roman, Writing That Works: How to Communicate Effectively in Business

“On minimizing office politics: “Sack incurable politicians. Crusade against paper warfare.” On morale: “When people aren’t having any fun, they seldom produce good advertising. Get rid of sad dogs who spread gloom.” On professional standards: “Top men must not tolerate sloppy plans or mediocre creative work.” On partnership: “Top Management in each country should function like a round table, presided over by a Chairman who is big enough to be effective in the role of primus inter pares.”
― Kenneth Roman, The King of Madison Avenue: David Ogilvy and the Making of Modern Advertising

“Ogilvy never wrote an advertisement in the office: “Too many interruptions.” He started by looking at every advertisement for competing products for the past 20 years: “Study the precedents.” Then he’d go to work on a headline. Finally, when he could no longer postpone the actual copy, he would start writing, usually throwing away the first 20 attempts. “If all else fails, I drink a half a bottle of rum and play a Handel oratorio on the gramophone. This generally produces a gush of copy.” The next morning, he would get up early and edit the gush. “I am a lousy copywriter,” he would say, “but a good editor.”
― Kenneth Roman, The King of Madison Avenue: David Ogilvy and the Making of Modern Advertising

“Regards,” “Best wishes,” “All the best” are more personal than the others and less formal, but not appropriate if you don’t know your reader. And there isn’t anything wrong with simply”
― Kenneth Roman, Writing That Works: How to Communicate Effectively in Business