Deleting text by pressing & holding the delete button is very slow...

Deleting text by pressing & holding the delete button is very slow... So I end up having to press the delete button repeatedly and very fast to delete the sentence character by character because it's faster. I checked the keyboard preferences but I didn't see any parameter for speeding up this process. Is there a way to change that? I know I can highlight what I want to delete and then delete it, but sometimes, I find it more convenient to press/hold the delete button. When you're "on a roll", it doesn't break your rythm, it just feels like you're "rewinding" a little, then moving forward again, but the "train" never left the track. Maybe it's just me. Does it make any sense to anyone?