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Clutter is the disease of American writing.

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
Frills
Strangling
Jargon
Pompous
Clutter
Disease
American
Writing

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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.
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Abraham Lincoln and Winston Churchill rode to glory on the back of the strong declarative sentence.
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Telling a writer to relax is like telling a man to relax while being prodded for a possible hernia.
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A writer will do anything to avoid the act of writing.
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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
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Many of us were taught that no sentence should begin with but. If that's what you learned, unlearn it - there's no stronger word at the start. It announces a total contrast with what has gone before, and the reader is thereby primed for the change.
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Memoir is the art of inventing the truth.
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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.
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Don’t try to visualize the great mass audience. There is no such audience—every reader is a different person.
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Examine every word you put on paper. You'll find a surprising number that don't serve any purpose.
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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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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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Dare to tell the smallest of stories if you want to generate large emotions.
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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.
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Be wary of security as a goal. It may often look like life's best prize. Usually it's not.
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Never forget that you are practicing a craft with certain principles.
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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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Hard writing makes easy reading. Easy writing makes hard reading.
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Good writers are visible just behind their words.
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The best way to learn to write is to study the work of the men and women who are doing the kind of writing you want to do.
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