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My four articles of faith: clarity, simplicity, brevity and humanity.
William Zinsser
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William Zinsser
Age: 92 †
Born: 1922
Born: October 7
Died: 2015
Died: May 12
Journalist
Literary Critic
Writer
New York City
New York
William Knowlton Zinsser
Simplicity
Humanity
Four
Faith
Writing
Brevity
Articles
Clarity
More quotes by William Zinsser
Clutter is the disease of American writing. We are a society strangling in unnecessary words, circular constructions, pompous frills, and meaningless jargon.
William Zinsser
You learn to write by writing.
William Zinsser
There's no sentence that's too short in the eyes of God.
William Zinsser
To write a good memoir you must become the editor of your own life, imposing on an untidy sprawl of half-remembered events a narrative shape and an organizing idea. Memoir is the art of inventing the truth.
William Zinsser
Never forget that you are practicing a craft with certain principles.
William Zinsser
Ultimately the product that any writer has to sell is not the subject being written about, but who he or she is.
William Zinsser
People read with their ears, whether they know it or not.
William Zinsser
Be grateful for every word you can cut.
William Zinsser
Hard writing makes easy reading. Easy writing makes hard reading.
William Zinsser
Writing and learning and thinking are the same process.
William Zinsser
All writing is ultimately a question of solving a problem.
William Zinsser
To defend what you've written is a sign that you are alive.
William Zinsser
Every time you look at a blank piece of paper, you're doing something new. You have to step onto that blank territory and remind yourself the sky didn't fall in the last time you wrote. Writing is a question of overcoming your fears-and everybody has them.
William Zinsser
When you're ready to stop, stop. If you have presented all the facts and made the point you want to make, look for the nearest exit.
William Zinsser
Writing is thinking on paper.
William Zinsser
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
Writing is hard work.
William Zinsser
No one has something original or important to say will willing we run the risk of being misunderstood people who write obscurely are either unskilled in writing or up to mischief
William Zinsser
There's not much to be said about the period except that most writers don't reach it soon enough.
William Zinsser
Rewriting is the essence of writing well - where the game is won or lost.
William Zinsser
