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Writing Quotes by William Zinsser
- If writing seems hard, it's because it is hard. It's one of the hardest things people do.
- Writing is thinking on paper.
- Writing and learning and thinking are the same process.
- Hard writing makes easy reading. Easy writing makes hard reading.
- To defend what you've written is a sign that you are alive.
- I almost always urge people to write in the first person. ... Writing is an act of ego and you might as well admit it.
- Be grateful for every word you can cut.
- Writing improves in direct ratio to the things we can keep out of it that shouldn't be there.
- 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…
- 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…
- 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…
- 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…
- Don't hedge your prose with little timidities. Good writing is lean and confident. . . . Every little qualifier whittles away some fraction of the…
- My four articles of faith: clarity, simplicity, brevity and humanity.
- 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…
- Clutter is the disease of American writing. We are a society strangling in unnecessary words, circular constructions, pompous frills, and meaningless jargon.
- Finding a voice that your readers will enjoy is largely a matter of taste. Saying that isn't much help-taste is a quality so intangible that…
- Good writers are visible just behind their words.
- 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…
- Good writing is lean and confident.
- Many of us were taught that no sentence should begin with "but." If that's what you learned, unlearn it - there's no stronger word at…
- Writing is thinking on paper. Anyone who thinks clearly should be able to write clearly-about any subject at all.
- Four basic premises of writing: clarity, brevity, simplicity, and humanity.
- The only way to learn to write is to force yourself to produce a certain number of words on a regular basis.
- Clutter is the disease of American writing,
More Writing Quotes
- Storytelling reveals meaning without committing the error of defining it. — Hannah Arendt
- Writing makes you feel that there is a reason to go on living. If I couldn't write, I would stop breathing. — Paul Auster
- I started out in life as a poet; I was only writing poetry all through my 20s. It wasn't until I was… — Paul Auster
- I write the paragraph, then I'm crossing out, changing words, trying to improve it. When it seems more or less OK, then… — Paul Auster
- When we were making the law, when we were writing the literature and the mathematics the grandfarthers of Blair and little Bush… — Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf
- A professional writer is an amateur who didn't quit. — Richard Bach
- In every song I write, whether it's a love song or a political song or a song about family, the one thing… — Billie Joe Armstrong
- I grew up in a working-class family, so I guess you could say I write from what I know. — Andrea Arnold
- Writing comes more easily if you have something to say. — Sholem Asch
- Individual science fiction stories may seem as trivial as ever to the blinder critics and philosophers of today - but the core… — Isaac Asimov
- If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn't brood. I'd type a little faster. — Isaac Asimov
- Science fiction writers foresee the inevitable, and although problems and catastrophes may be inevitable, solutions are not. — Isaac Asimov