William Zinsser Quotes About Writing

Quotes about: Writing

• Writing is thinking on paper.

  William Zinsser

  Writing, Thinking, Paper

  "On Writing Well" by William Zinsser, Introduction, (p. vii), 1976.

• Don’t say you were a bit confused and sort of tired and a little depressed and somewhat annoyed. Be tired. Be confused. Be depressed. Be annoyed. Don’t hedge your prose with little timidities. Good writing is lean and confident.

  William Zinsser

  Confused, Writing, Tired

• 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 this in moments of despair. If you find that writing is hard, it's because it is hard. It's one of the hardest things that people do

  William Zinsser

  Writing, Hard Work, People

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

• 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

• If writing seems hard, it's because it is hard. It's one of the hardest things people do.

  William Zinsser

  Writing, People, Perfection

• 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

• Clutter is the disease of American writing. We are a society strangling in unnecessary words, circular constructions, pompous frills, and meaningless jargon.

  William Zinsser

  Writing, Jargon, Disease

  William Zinsser (2012). “On Writing Well, 30th Anniversary Edition: An Informal Guide to Writing Nonfiction”, p.6, Harper Collins

• 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

• 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

• To defend what you've written is a sign that you are alive.

  William Zinsser

  Writing, Marketing, Alive

• 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

• Four basic premises of writing: clarity, brevity, simplicity, and humanity.

  William Zinsser

  Inspirational, Writing, Simplicity

  "Writing to Clients and Referring Professionals about Psychological Assessment". Book by J. B. Allyn (p. 164), 2012.

• Writing is not a special language that belongs to a few sensitive souls who have a 'gift for words'. Writing is the logical arrangement of thought. Anyone who thinks clearly should be able to write clearly---about any subject at all.

  William Zinsser

  Writing, Thinking, Soul

• 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.

  William Zinsser

  Writing, Thinking, Trying

• 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

• The only way to learn to write is to force yourself to produce a certain number of words on a regular basis.

  William Zinsser

  Writing, Numbers, Way

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

• Hard writing makes easy reading. Easy writing makes hard reading.

  William Zinsser

  Reading, Writing, Easy

• 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

• 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

• Good writers are visible just behind their words.

  William Zinsser

  Writing, Behinds, Visible

  William Zinsser (2012). “On Writing Well, 30th Anniversary Edition: An Informal Guide to Writing Nonfiction”, p.21, Harper Collins

• A writer is always working.

  William Zinsser

  Writing, Always Working

• 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.

  William Zinsser

  Memories, Writing, Thinking

  William Zinsser (2005). “Writing about Your Life: A Journey Into the Past”, p.7, Da Capo Press

• Believe in your own identity and your own opinions. Proceed with confidence, generating it, if necessary, by pure willpower. Writing is an act of ego and you might as well admit it. Use its energy to keep yourself going.

  William Zinsser

  Believe, Writing, Ego

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

  William Zinsser

  Writing, Essence, Games

• Rewriting is the essence of writing well: it's where the game is won or lost. The idea is hard to accept. We all have emotional equity in our first draft; we can't believe that it wasn't born perfect. But the odds are close to 100 percent that it wasn't.

  William Zinsser

  Believe, Writing, Emotional

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