William Zinsser
William Zinsser
William Knowlton Zinsserwas an American writer, editor, literary critic, and teacher. He began his career as a journalist for the New York Herald Tribune, where he worked as a feature writer, drama editor, film critic and editorial writer. He was a longtime contributor to leading magazines...
William Zinsser quotes about
writing problem writing-well
All writing is ultimately a question of solving a problem.
being-yourself writing trying
Be yourself and your readers will follow you anywhere. Try to commit an act of writing and they will jump overboard to get away.
mistake corporations language
Clutter is the official language used by corporations to hide their mistakes.
writing thinking trying
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.
want stories emotion
Dare to tell the smallest of stories if you want to generate large emotions.
motivation faster spray
Motivation clears the head faster than a nasal spray.
writing tasks shapes
One of underestimated tasks in nonfiction writing is to impose narrative shape on an unwieldy mass of material.
weed fighting clutter
Fighting clutter is like fighting weeds-the writer is always slightly behind,
memories writing thinking
Write about small, self-contained incidents that are still vivid in your memory. If you remember them, it's because they contain a larger truth that your readers will recognize in their own lives. Think small and you'll wind up finding the big themes in your family saga.
writing two people
A writer is obviously at his most natural and relaxed when he writes in the first person. Writing is a personal transaction between two people, conducted on paper, and the transaction will go well to the extent that it retains its humanity.
strong glory abraham
Abraham Lincoln and Winston Churchill rode to glory on the back of the strong declarative sentence.
funny work humor
What I want to do is to make people laugh so that they'll see things seriously.
writing doe needs
You can solve most of your writing problems if you stop after every sentence and ask: what does the reader need to know next?
writing thinking doe
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?