William Zinsser Quotations | Page 2

I think a sentence is a fine thing to put a preposition at the end of.

Don't be kind of bold. Be bold.

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.

But nothing has replaced the writer. He or she is still stuck with the same old job of saying something that other people will want to read.

Ultimately the product that any writer has to sell is not the subject being written about, but who he or she is.

A writer will do anything to avoid the act of writing.

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

A simple [writing] style is the result of very hard work.

Noise is the typographical error and the poorly designed page...Ambiguity is noise. Redundancy is noise. Misuse of words is noise. Vagueness is noise. Jargon is noise.

Writing is a craft not an art.

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

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.

A clear sentence is no accident.

There's not much to be said about the period except that most writers don't reach it soon enough.

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

Clear thinking becomes clear writing; one can't exist without the other.

I almost always urge people to write in the first person. ... Writing is an act of ego and you might as well admit it.

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

Nobody ever stopped reading E. B. White or V. S. Pritchett because the writing was too good.

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.

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

Also bear in mind, when you're choosing your words and stringing them together, how they sound. This may seem absurd: readers read with their eyes. But in fact they hear what they are reading far more than you realize.

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.

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

There's no subject you don't have permission to write about. Students often avoid subjects close to their heart ... because they assume that their teachers will regard those topics as 'stupid.' No area of life is stupid to someone who takes it seriously. If you follow your affections you will write well and will engage your readers.

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

Good writing has an aliveness that keeps the reader reading from one paragraph to the next, and it's not a question of gimmicks to "personalize" the author.

People read with their ears, whether they know it or not,

The most important sentence in any article is the first one. If it doesn't induce the reader to proceed to the second sentence, your article is dead. And if the second sentence doesn't induce him to continue to the third sentence, it's equally dead.

If you write for yourself, you'll reach all the people you want to write for.

Writing is thinking on paper.