William Zinsser Quotes - Page 3

Quotes about:

• 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

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• 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

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• Clear thinking becomes clear writing; one can't exist without the other.

  William Zinsser

  Writing, Thinking, Clear

  William Zinsser (2012). “On Writing Well, 30th Anniversary Edition: An Informal Guide to Writing Nonfiction”, p.8, Harper Collins

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

  William Zinsser

  People, Ears, Knows

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• 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

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

  William Zinsser

  Writing, Shapes, Narrative

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• Writing is learned by imitation. If anyone asked me how I learned to write, I'd say I learned by reading the men and women who were doing the kind of writing I wanted to do and trying to figure out how they did it.

  William Zinsser

  Reading, Writing, Men

  William Zinsser (2012). “On Writing Well, 30th Anniversary Edition: An Informal Guide to Writing Nonfiction”, p.34, Harper Collins

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• All your clear and pleasing sentences will fall apart if you don't keep remembering that writing is linear and sequential, that logic is the glue that holds it together, that tension must be maintained from one sentence to the next and from one paragraph to the next and from one section to the next, and that narrative - good old-fashioned storytelling - is what should pull your readers along without their noticing the tug.

  William Zinsser

  Fall, Writing, Together

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• My four articles of faith: clarity, simplicity, brevity and humanity.

  William Zinsser

  Writing, Simplicity, Humanity

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• Nobody told all the new e-mail writers that the essence of writing is rewriting. Just because they are writing with ease and enjoyment doesn't mean they are writing well.

  William Zinsser

  Writing, Mean, Essence

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• There are all kinds of writers and all kinds of methods, and any method that helps you to say what you want to say is the right method for you.

  William Zinsser

  Writing, Want, Helping

  William Zinsser (2012). “On Writing Well, 30th Anniversary Edition: An Informal Guide to Writing Nonfiction”, p.5, Harper Collins

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• Decide what you want to do. Then decide to do it. Then do it.

  William Zinsser

  Want, What You Want, Miscellaneous

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• 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

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• 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

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• The writers job is like solving a puzzle, and finally arriving at a solution is a tremendous satisfaction.

  William Zinsser

  Jobs, Arriving, Satisfaction

  "On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction". Book by William Zinsser (Chapter 21 "A Writers Decisions: Organizing a Long Article," p. 254), 1976.

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• 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

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• A clear sentence is no accident.

  William Zinsser

  Writing, Clear, Sentences

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

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• 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

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• Be yourself and your readers will follow you anywhere. Try to commit an act of writing and they will jump overboard to get away.

  William Zinsser

  Being Yourself, Writing, Trying

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• 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

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• 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

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• You'll never make your mark as a writer unless you develop a respect for words and a curiosity about their shades of meaning that is almost obsessive. The English language is rich in strong and supple words. Take the time to root around and find the ones you want

  William Zinsser

  Strong, Roots, Curiosity

  William Zinsser (2012). “On Writing Well, 30th Anniversary Edition: An Informal Guide to Writing Nonfiction”, p.32, Harper Collins

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• Writing is a craft not an art.

  William Zinsser

  Inspirational, Art, Writing

  William Zinsser (2012). “On Writing Well, 30th Anniversary Edition: An Informal Guide to Writing Nonfiction”, p.4, Harper Collins

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• Eloquence invites us to bring some part of ourselves to the transaction.

  William Zinsser

  Eloquence, Transactions, Invites

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• Not everybody has a talent for painting, or for the piano, or for dance. But we can write our way into the artist's head and into his problems and solutions. Or we can go there with another writer.

  William Zinsser

  Writing, Artist, Piano

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