I'm pretty sure what you described is what he meant by brevity. It's not about writing less code per say. It's about adding layers of abstraction, which classes are, to shrink the problem space.
Comparing python to assembly, python has basically added in another level of abstraction. It's easier to translate a concept into python because of this. A good hacker can build up these abstractions himself no matter the language, but it's just easier and nicer to use a language that has the type of abstractions you'll be using already built in.
Once you fully trust your classes then they become like DSLs and you build your program out of them rather than the raw bits of whatever language you're using.
Comparing python to assembly, python has basically added in another level of abstraction. It's easier to translate a concept into python because of this. A good hacker can build up these abstractions himself no matter the language, but it's just easier and nicer to use a language that has the type of abstractions you'll be using already built in.
Once you fully trust your classes then they become like DSLs and you build your program out of them rather than the raw bits of whatever language you're using.