Quote

Good writers are visible just behind their words.

William Zinsser

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
Behind
Words
Writing
Good
Visible
Writers
Behinds

More quotes by William Zinsser

Image
Nobody ever stopped reading E. B. White or V. S. Pritchett because the writing was too good.
William Zinsser
Image
Don’t try to visualize the great mass audience. There is no such audience—every reader is a different person.
William Zinsser
Image
Today the outlandish becomes routine overnight. The humorist is trying to say that it's still outlandish.
William Zinsser
Image
I think a sentence is a fine thing to put a preposition at the end of.
William Zinsser
Image
Not everybody has a talent for painting, or for the piano, or for dance. But we can write our way into the artist's head and into his problems and solutions. Or we can go there with another writer.
William Zinsser
Image
Make a habit of reading what is being written today and what has been written before. Writing is learned by imitation.
William Zinsser
Image
Writing and learning and thinking are the same process.
William Zinsser
Image
Writers can write to affirm and to celebrate, or they can write to debunk and destroy the choice is ours.
William Zinsser
Image
Editors are licensed to be curious.
William Zinsser
Image
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.
William Zinsser
Image
Hard writing makes easy reading. Easy writing makes hard reading.
William Zinsser
Image
A clear sentence is no accident.
William Zinsser
Image
Although the frankfurter originated in Frankfurt, Germany, we have long since made it our own, a twin pillar of democracy along with Mom's apple pie. In fact, now that Mom's apple pie comes frozen and baked by somebody who isn't Mom, the hot dog stands alone. What it symbolizes remains pure, even if what it contains does not.
William Zinsser
Image
The only way to learn to write is to force yourself to produce a certain number of words on a regular basis.
William Zinsser
Image
Never say anything in writing that you wouldn't comfortably say in conversation. Be yourself when you write. If you're not a person who says 'indeed' or 'moreover,' or who calls someone an individual ('he's a fine individual'), please don't write it.
William Zinsser
Image
Thought is action in rehearsal.
William Zinsser
Image
A simple [writing] style is the result of very hard work.
William Zinsser
Image
The writers job is like solving a puzzle, and finally arriving at a solution is a tremendous satisfaction.
William Zinsser
Image
Decide what you want to do. Then decide to do it. Then do it.
William Zinsser
Image
Clutter is the official language used by corporations to hide their mistakes.
William Zinsser