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Clutter is the disease of American writing. We are a society strangling in unnecessary words, circular constructions, pompous frills, and meaningless jargon.
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
American
Jargon
Words
Pompous
Writing
Clutter
Unnecessary
Construction
Frills
Meaningless
Constructions
Disease
Strangling
Society
Circular
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Probably every subject is interesting if an avenue into it can be found that has humanity and that an ordinary person can follow.
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My four articles of faith: clarity, simplicity, brevity and humanity.
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It's a fitting irony that under Richard Nixon launder became a dirty word.
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Decide what you want to do. Then decide to do it. Then do it.
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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.
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Never let anything go out into the world that you don't understand.
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Fighting clutter is like fighting weeds-the writer is always slightly behind.
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If you write for yourself, you'll reach all the people you want to write for.
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Clutter is the disease of American writing.
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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.
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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.
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Be yourself and your readers will follow you anywhere. Try to commit an act of writing and they will jump overboard to get away.
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The writers job is like solving a puzzle, and finally arriving at a solution is a tremendous satisfaction.
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Many writers are paralyzed by the thought that they are competing with everybody else who is trying to write and presumably doing it better.... Forget the competition and go at your own pace. Your only contest is with yourself.
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Writing is no respecter of blueprints.
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Writing is hard work.
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Writers are the custodians of memory, and that's what this chapter is about: how to leave some kind of record of your life and of the family you were born into.
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Never hesitate to imitate another writer - every person learning a craft or an art needs models. Eventually you'll find your own voice and will shed the skin of the writer you imitated.
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Four basic premises of writing: clarity, brevity, simplicity, and humanity.
William Zinsser
