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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
Writing
Frills
Strangling
Jargon
Pompous
Clutter
Disease
American
More quotes by William Zinsser
Avoid the ecstatic adjectives that occupy such disproportionate space in every critic's quiver - words like enthralling and luminous.
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Nobody becomes Tom Wolfe overnight, not even Tom Wolfe.
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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.
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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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There's not much to be said about the period except that most writers don't reach it soon enough.
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I try to make what I have written tighter, stronger and more precise, eliminating every element that's not doing useful work. Then I go over it once more, reading it aloud, and am always amazed at how much clutter can still be cut.
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Editors are licensed to be curious.
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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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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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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.
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Don't be kind of bold. Be bold.
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The secret of good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components.
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Writers must constantly ask: what I am trying to say? Surprisingly often, they don't know.
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People read with their ears, whether they know it or not.
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Nobody ever stopped reading E. B. White or V. S. Pritchett because the writing was too good.
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Writing is hard work.
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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.
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It's a fitting irony that under Richard Nixon launder became a dirty word.
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Keep your paragraphs short. Writing is visual - it catches the eye before it has a chance to catch the brain.
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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.
William Zinsser
