Easy reading is damn hard writing.

The remark underscores a paradox of craft: prose that feels effortless to the reader is often the product of strenuous labor—drafting, cutting, rearranging, and refining until the seams disappear. It points to the hidden work behind clarity, rhythm, and apparent simplicity, and it implicitly rebukes the idea that “natural” style is merely spontaneous. As a maxim, it also functions as encouragement to writers: difficulty in composing clean, readable sentences is not a sign of failure but a normal cost of making language transparent. The line has become a durable aphorism about revision and the ethics of polish.