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.

  46 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

  26 Copy quote

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

  William Zinsser

  Reading, Writing, Easy

  23 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.

  19 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

  21 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

  7 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

  8 Copy quote

• People read with their ears, whether they know it or not.

  William Zinsser

  People, Ears, Knows

  3 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

  13 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

  7 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

  7 Copy quote

• 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, Doe, Needs

  6 Copy quote

• Few people realize how badly they write. Nobody has shown them how much excess or murkiness has crept into their style.

  William Zinsser

  Writing, People, Style

  William Zinsser (2012). “On Writing Well, 30th Anniversary Edition: An Informal Guide to Writing Nonfiction”, p.17, Harper Collins

  7 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

  28 Copy quote

• Many writers are paralyzed by the thought that they are competing with everybody else who is trying to write and presumably doing it better.... Forget the competition and go at your own pace. Your only contest is with yourself.

  William Zinsser

  Writing, Competition, Trying

  8 Copy quote

• Also bear in mind, when you're choosing your words and stringing them together, how they sound. This may seem absurd: readers read with their eyes. But in fact they hear what they are reading far more than you realize.

  William Zinsser

  Reading, Eye, Mind

  William Zinsser (2012). “On Writing Well, 30th Anniversary Edition: An Informal Guide to Writing Nonfiction”, p.35, Harper Collins

  7 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

  7 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.

  6 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

  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

  4 Copy quote

• A writer will do anything to avoid the act of writing.

  William Zinsser

  Writing

  William Zinsser (2012). “On Writing Well, 30th Anniversary Edition: An Informal Guide to Writing Nonfiction”, p.19, Harper Collins

  3 Copy quote

• All writers should strive to deliver something fresh-something editors or readers won't know they want until they see it.

  William Zinsser

  Editors, Want, Strive

  2 Copy quote

• My commodity as a writer, whatever I'm writing about, is me. And your commodity is you. Don't alter your voice to fit the subject. Develop one voice that readers will recognize when they hear it on the page, a voice that's enjoyable not only in its musical line but in its avoidance of sounds that would cheapen its tone: breeziness and condescension and clichés.

  William Zinsser

  Writing, Voice, Musical

  2 Copy quote

• I almost always urge people to write in the first person. ... Writing is an act of ego and you might as well admit it.

  William Zinsser

  Writing, People, Ego

  11 Copy quote

• To write a good memoir you must become the editor of your own life, imposing on an untidy sprawl of half-remembered events a narrative shape and an organizing idea. Memoir is the art of inventing the truth.

  William Zinsser

  Art, Writing, Editors

  0 Copy quote

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