William Zinsser Quotes

Quotes about:

• Writing is thinking on paper.

  William Zinsser

  Writing, Thinking, Paper

  "On Writing Well" by William Zinsser, Introduction, (p. vii), 1976.

  52 Copy quote

• The game is won or lost on hundreds of small details.

  William Zinsser

  Games, Details, Small Details

  9 Copy quote

• Rewriting is the essence of writing well: it's where the game is won or lost. The idea is hard to accept. We all have emotional equity in our first draft; we can't believe that it wasn't born perfect. But the odds are close to 100 percent that it wasn't.

  William Zinsser

  Believe, Writing, Emotional

  7 Copy quote

• Four basic premises of writing: clarity, brevity, simplicity, and humanity.

  William Zinsser

  Inspirational, Writing, Simplicity

  "Writing to Clients and Referring Professionals about Psychological Assessment". Book by J. B. Allyn (p. 164), 2012.

  25 Copy quote

• Writing is hard work. A clear sentence is no accident. Very few sentences come out right the first time, or even the third time. Remember this in moments of despair. If you find that writing is hard, it's because it is hard. It's one of the hardest things that people do

  William Zinsser

  Writing, Hard Work, People

  William Zinsser (2012). “On Writing Well, 30th Anniversary Edition: An Informal Guide to Writing Nonfiction”, p.9, Harper Collins

  32 Copy quote

• Hard writing makes easy reading. Easy writing makes hard reading.

  William Zinsser

  Reading, Writing, Easy

  28 Copy quote

• Dare to tell the smallest of stories if you want to generate large emotions.

  William Zinsser

  Stories, Want, Emotion

  William Zinsser “The Writer Who Stayed”, Paul Dry Books

  4 Copy quote

• Writing is such lonely work that I try to keep myself cheered up. If something strikes me as funny in the act of writing, I throw it in just to amuse myself. If I think it's funny I assume a few other people will find it funny, and that seems to me to be a good day's work.

  William Zinsser

  Lonely, Writing, Good Day

  5 Copy quote

• The secret of good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components.

  William Zinsser

  Writing, Secret, Sentences

  William Zinsser (2012). “On Writing Well, 30th Anniversary Edition: An Informal Guide to Writing Nonfiction”, p.6, Harper Collins

  7 Copy quote

• Writing is not a special language that belongs to a few sensitive souls who have a 'gift for words'. Writing is the logical arrangement of thought. Anyone who thinks clearly should be able to write clearly---about any subject at all.

  William Zinsser

  Writing, Thinking, Soul

  25 Copy quote

• Examine every word you put on paper. You'll find a surprising number that don't serve any purpose.

  William Zinsser

  Numbers, Purpose, Paper

  William Zinsser (2012). “On Writing Well, 30th Anniversary Edition: An Informal Guide to Writing Nonfiction”, p.12, Harper Collins

  11 Copy quote

• Clutter is the disease of American writing. We are a society strangling in unnecessary words, circular constructions, pompous frills, and meaningless jargon.

  William Zinsser

  Writing, Jargon, Disease

  William Zinsser (2012). “On Writing Well, 30th Anniversary Edition: An Informal Guide to Writing Nonfiction”, p.6, Harper Collins

  33 Copy quote

• Writing organizes and clarifies our thoughts. Writing is how we think our way into a subject and make it our own. Writing enables us to find out what we know-and what we don't know-about whatever we're trying to learn.

  William Zinsser

  Writing, Thinking, Trying

  7 Copy quote

• Readers must be given room to bring their own emotions to a piece so crammed with emotional content; the writer must tenaciously resist explaining why the material is so moving.

  William Zinsser

  Moving, Emotional, Rooms

  4 Copy quote

• To defend what you've written is a sign that you are alive.

  William Zinsser

  Writing, Marketing, Alive

  9 Copy quote

• Don’t say you were a bit confused and sort of tired and a little depressed and somewhat annoyed. Be tired. Be confused. Be depressed. Be annoyed. Don’t hedge your prose with little timidities. Good writing is lean and confident.

  William Zinsser

  Confused, Writing, Tired

  17 Copy quote

• If writing seems hard, it's because it is hard. It's one of the hardest things people do.

  William Zinsser

  Writing, People, Perfection

  11 Copy quote

• Writing is linear and sequential; Sentence B must follow Sentence A, and Sentence C must follow Sentence B, and eventually you get to Sentence Z. The hard part of writing isn't the writing; it's the thinking. You can solve most of your writing problems if you stop after every sentence and ask: What does the reader need to know next?

  William Zinsser

  Writing, Thinking, Doe

  12 Copy quote

• There's not much to be said about the period except that most writers don't reach it soon enough.

  William Zinsser

  Soon Enough, Enough, Said

  11 Copy quote

• Never hesitate to imitate another writer - every person learning a craft or an art needs models. Eventually you'll find your own voice and will shed the skin of the writer you imitated.

  William Zinsser

  Art, Voice, Skins

  "On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction". Book by William Zinsser (Chapter 13 "Bits & Pieces," p. 136), 1976.

  7 Copy quote

• Believe in your own identity and your own opinions. Proceed with confidence, generating it, if necessary, by pure willpower. Writing is an act of ego and you might as well admit it. Use its energy to keep yourself going.

  William Zinsser

  Believe, Writing, Ego

  8 Copy quote

• Writing improves in direct ratio to the things we can keep out of it that shouldn't be there.

  William Zinsser

  Writing, Ratios, Direct

  William Zinsser (2012). “On Writing Well, 30th Anniversary Edition: An Informal Guide to Writing Nonfiction”, p.12, Harper Collins

  4 Copy quote

• If you write for yourself, you'll reach all the people you want to write for.

  William Zinsser

  Writing, People, Want

  "On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction". Book by William Zinsser (Chapter 12 "Writing About Yourself: The Memoir," p. 98), 1976.

  10 Copy quote

• If the nails are weak, your house will collapse. If your verbs are weak and your syntax is rickety, your sentences will fall apart.

  William Zinsser

  Fall, House, Nails

  William Zinsser (2012). “On Writing Well, 30th Anniversary Edition: An Informal Guide to Writing Nonfiction”, p.18, Harper Collins

  12 Copy quote

• One of underestimated tasks in nonfiction writing is to impose narrative shape on an unwieldy mass of material.

  William Zinsser

  Writing, Shapes, Narrative

  11 Copy quote

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