William Zinsser Quotes - Page 6

Quotes about:

• I try to make what I have written tighter, stronger and more precise, eliminating every element that's not doing useful work. Then I go over it once more, reading it aloud, and am always amazed at how much clutter can still be cut.

  William Zinsser

  Reading, Cutting, Trying

  William Zinsser (2012). “On Writing Well, 30th Anniversary Edition: An Informal Guide to Writing Nonfiction”, p.11, Harper Collins

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• The secret of good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components. Every word that serves no function, every long word that could be a short word, every adverb that carries the same meaning that’s already in the verb, every passive construction that leaves the reader unsure of who is doing what—these are the thousand and one adulterants that weaken the strength of a sentence. And they usually occur in proportion to the education and rank.

  William Zinsser

  Writing, Long, Secret

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• Scholarship hath no fury like that of a language purist faced with sludge.

  William Zinsser

  Language, Scholarship, Fury

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

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• Much of my writing has taken the form of a pilgrimage: to sacred places that represent the best of America, to musicians and other artists who represent the best of their art.

  William Zinsser

  Art, Taken, Writing

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• Most writers sow adjectives almost unconsciously into the soil of their prose to make it more lush and pretty. The sentences become longer and longer as they fill up with stately elms and graceful boughs and frisky kittens and sleepy lagoons.

  William Zinsser

  Adjectives, Soil, Lagoons

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• Avoid the ecstatic adjectives that occupy such disproportionate space in every critic's quiver - words like "enthralling" and "luminous."

  William Zinsser

  Space, Adjectives, Quiver

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

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• Be wary of security as a goal. It may often look like life's best prize. Usually it's not.

  William Zinsser

  Goal, Looks, May

  William Zinsser (2005). “Writing about Your Life: A Journey Into the Past”, p.214, Da Capo Press

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• Writing is no respecter of blueprints.

  William Zinsser

  Writing, Blueprints

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

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