William Zinsser Quotes - Page 4

Quotes about:

• Don't try to guess what sort of thing editors want to publish or what you think the country is in a mood to read. Editors and readers don't know what they want to read until they read it. Besides, they're always looking for something new.

  William Zinsser

  Country, Writing, Thinking

  William Zinsser (2012). “On Writing Well, 30th Anniversary Edition: An Informal Guide to Writing Nonfiction”, p.24, Harper Collins

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• Clutter is the official language used by corporations to hide their mistakes.

  William Zinsser

  Mistake, Corporations, Language

  William Zinsser (2012). “On Writing Well, 30th Anniversary Edition: An Informal Guide to Writing Nonfiction”, p.14, Harper Collins

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• 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

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• No one has something original or important to say will willing we run the risk of being misunderstood; people who write obscurely are either unskilled in writing or up to mischief

  William Zinsser

  Running, Writing, People

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• Rewriting is the essence of writing well - where the game is won or lost.

  William Zinsser

  Writing, Essence, Games

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• Writing is thinking on paper. Anyone who thinks clearly should be able to write clearly-about any subject at all.

  William Zinsser

  Writing, Thinking, Paper

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• Thought is action in rehearsal.

  William Zinsser

  Positive, Thinking, Law Of Attraction

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• Writers are the custodians of memory, and that's what this chapter is about: how to leave some kind of record of your life and of the family you were born into.

  William Zinsser

  Memories, Custodians, Records

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• All writing is ultimately a question of solving a problem.

  William Zinsser

  Writing, Problem, Writing Well

  "On Writing Well". Book by William Zinsser (Chapter 8: Unity, p. 49), 1976.

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• But nothing has replaced the writer. He or she is still stuck with the same old job of saying something that other people will want to read.

  William Zinsser

  Jobs, Old Job, People

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• You learn to write by writing.

  William Zinsser

  Writing

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• Not every oak has to be gnarled, every detective hard-bitten. The adjective that exists solely as a decoration is a self-indulgence for the writer and an obstacle for the reader.

  William Zinsser

  Self, Adjectives, Detectives

  William Knowlton Zinsser (1980). “On Writing Well: An Informal Guide to Writing Nonfiction”, HarperCollins Publishers

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• What I want to do is to make people laugh so that they'll see things seriously.

  William Zinsser

  Funny, Work, Humor

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• Nobody becomes Tom Wolfe overnight, not even Tom Wolfe.

  William Zinsser

  Toms

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

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• A writer is always working.

  William Zinsser

  Writing, Always Working

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• Writing is hard work.

  William Zinsser

  Hard Work, Writing, Hard

  "On Writing Well". Book by William Zinsser (Chapter 2: Simplicity, p. 12), 1976.

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• I have no interest in teaching writers how to sell. I want to teach them how to write. If the process is sound, the product will take care of itself, and sales are likely to follow.

  William Zinsser

  Teaching, Writing, Sound

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• Good writing is lean and confident.

  William Zinsser

  Writing, Good Writing

  William Knowlton Zinsser (1980). “On Writing Well: An Informal Guide to Writing Nonfiction”, HarperCollins Publishers

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• Memoir is the art of inventing the truth.

  William Zinsser

  Art, Memoir, Inventing

  "On Writing Well". Book by William Zinsser (Chapter 12: Writing About Yourself: The Memoir, p. 99), 1976.

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• Don't hedge your prose with little timidities. Good writing is lean and confident. . . . Every little qualifier whittles away some fraction of the reader's trust. Readers want a writer who believes in himself and in what he is saying. Don't diminish that belief. Don't be kind of bold. Be bold.

  William Zinsser

  Believe, Writing, Want

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• Even a poor translator couldn't kill a style that moves with such narrative clarity.

  William Zinsser

  Moving, Style, Narrative

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• If you lose the dullards back in the dust, that's where they belong. You don't want them anyway.

  William Zinsser

  Dust, Want, Ifs

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• Nobody ever stopped reading E. B. White or V. S. Pritchett because the writing was too good.

  William Zinsser

  Reading, Writing, White

  "On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction". Book by William Zinsser (Chapter 13 "Bits & Pieces," p. 130), 1976.

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• Writers can write to affirm and to celebrate, or they can write to debunk and destroy; the choice is ours.

  William Zinsser

  Writing, Choices, Celebrate

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

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• Never hesitate to imitate another writer. Imitation is part of the creative process for anyone learning an art or a craft. Bach and Picasso didn't spring full-blown as Bach or Picasso; they needed models. This is especially true of writing.

  William Zinsser

  Art, Spring, Writing

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