“Writing is an intimate transaction between two people, conducted on paper...” — William Zinsser Copy Share Image
Four basic premises of writing: clarity, brevity, simplicity, and humanity. — William Zinsser Copy Share Image
The writer who cares about usage must always know the quick from the dead. — William Zinsser Copy Share Image
“Writers and learners will write better and learn more if they understand the "why" of what they are studying.” — William Zinsser Copy Share Image
The best way to learn to write is to study the work of the men and women who are doing the kind… — William Zinsser Copy Share Image
Writing improves in direct ratio to the things we can keep out of it that shouldn't be there. — William Zinsser Copy Share Image
Writers can write to affirm and to celebrate, or they can write to debunk and destroy; the choice is ours. — William Zinsser Copy Share Image
All writers should strive to deliver something fresh-something editors or readers won't know they want until they see it. — William Zinsser Copy Share Image
I almost always urge people to write in the first person. ... Writing is an act of ego and you might as… — William Zinsser Copy Share Image
Ultimately the product that any writer has to sell is not the subject being written about, but who he or she is. — William Zinsser Copy Share Image
If writing seems hard, it's because it is hard. It's one of the hardest things people do. — William Zinsser Copy Share Image
Writing organizes and clarifies our thoughts. Writing is how we think our way into a subject and make it our own. Writing… — William Zinsser Copy Share Image
Believe in your own identity and your own opinions. Proceed with confidence, generating it, if necessary, by pure willpower. Writing is an… — William Zinsser Copy Share Image
People and places are the twin pillars on which most nonfiction is built. Every human event happens somewhere, and the reader wants… — William Zinsser Copy Share Image
You'll never make your mark as a writer unless you develop a respect for words and a curiosity about their shades of… — William Zinsser Copy Share Image
To write a good memoir you must become the editor of your own life, imposing on an untidy sprawl of half-remembered events… — William Zinsser Copy Share Image
Don’t say you were a bit confused and sort of tired and a little depressed and somewhat annoyed. Be tired. Be confused.… — William Zinsser Copy Share Image
Don't try to guess what sort of thing editors want to publish or what you think the country is in a mood… — William Zinsser Copy Share Image
Rewriting is the essence of writing well: it's where the game is won or lost. The idea is hard to accept. We… — William Zinsser Copy Share Image
Writing wasn't easy and wasn't fun. It was hard and lonely, and the words seldom just flowed. — William Zinsser Copy Share Image
Telling a writer to relax is like telling a man to relax while being prodded for a possible hernia. — William Zinsser Copy Share Image
Writing is thinking on paper. Anyone who thinks clearly should be able to write clearly-about any subject at all. — William Zinsser Copy Share Image
Many writers are paralyzed by the thought that they are competing with everybody else who is trying to write and presumably doing… — William Zinsser Copy Share Image
A writer is obviously at his most natural and relaxed when he writes in the first person. Writing is a personal transaction… — William Zinsser Copy Share Image
Don't hedge your prose with little timidities. Good writing is lean and confident. . . . Every little qualifier whittles away some… — William Zinsser Copy Share Image
Readers must be given room to bring their own emotions to a piece so crammed with emotional content; the writer must tenaciously… — William Zinsser Copy Share Image
Writing is learned by imitation. If anyone asked me how I learned to write, I'd say I learned by reading the men… — William Zinsser Copy Share Image
Memoir isn't the summary of a life; it's a window into a life, very much like a photograph in its selective composition.… — William Zinsser Copy Share Image
“Writing can be taught or learned in the vacuum. We must say to students in every area of knowledge: "This is a… — William Zinsser Copy Share Image
Writing is linear and sequential; Sentence B must follow Sentence A, and Sentence C must follow Sentence B, and eventually you get… — William Zinsser Copy Share Image
Every successful piece of nonfiction should leave the reader with one provocative thought that he or she didn't have before. Not two… — William Zinsser Copy Share Image
“But the secret of good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components. Every words that serves no function, every long word… — William Zinsser Copy Share
No one has something original or important to say will willing we run the risk of being misunderstood; people who write obscurely are either… — William Zinsser Copy Share
Avoid the ecstatic adjectives that occupy such disproportionate space in every critic's quiver - words like "enthralling" and "luminous." — William Zinsser Copy Share
Scholarship hath no fury like that of a language purist faced with sludge. — William Zinsser Copy Share
Clutter is the official language used by corporations to hide their mistakes. — William Zinsser Copy Share
Keep your paragraphs short. Writing is visual - it catches the eye before it has a chance to catch the brain. — William Zinsser Copy Share
Never hesitate to imitate another writer - every person learning a craft or an art needs models. Eventually you'll find your own voice and… — William Zinsser Copy Share
Abraham Lincoln and Winston Churchill rode to glory on the back of the strong declarative sentence. — William Zinsser Copy Share
Writing organizes and clarifies our thoughts. Writing is how we think our way into a subject and make it our own. Writing enables us… — William Zinsser Copy Share
Rewriting is the essence of writing well - where the game is won or lost. — William Zinsser Copy Share
Clear thinking becomes clear writing; one can't exist without the other. — William Zinsser Copy Share
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 Copy Share
![“A simple [writing] style is the result of very hard work.” quote by William Zinsser](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/ebd/william-zinsser-2796_design_a-simple-writing-style-is-the-result-of_2870964.png)
