From the ghost of Hemingway's editor, to a number of authors whose Pulitzers should be regarded as dubious: 1) Many sentences are just for exposition; say what you need to say and get on with the story. 2) It's OK if a walk-on character is used as a prop -- most are for that purpose; the waitress can just take the order and get off! 3) Dialogue tells more through what's not said than by what is.