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A writer will do anything to avoid the act of 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
Avoid
Writer
Anything
Writing

More quotes by William Zinsser

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Make a habit of reading what is being written today and what has been written before. Writing is learned by imitation.
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There's no sentence that's too short in the eyes of God.
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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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The only way to learn to write is to force yourself to produce a certain number of words on a regular basis.
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The game is won or lost on hundreds of small details.
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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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Fighting clutter is like fighting weeds-the writer is always slightly behind.
William Zinsser
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Writing and learning and thinking are the same process.
William Zinsser
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Journalism is writing that first appears in any periodic journal.
William Zinsser
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Writing is no respecter of blueprints.
William Zinsser
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Writing is hard work. A clear sentence is no accident. Very few sentences come out right the first time, or even the third time. Remember this in moments of despair. If you find that writing is hard, it's because it is hard. It's one of the hardest things that people do
William Zinsser
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Writing wasn't easy and wasn't fun. It was hard and lonely, and the words seldom just flowed.
William Zinsser
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Good writers are visible just behind their words.
William Zinsser
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If you write for yourself, you'll reach all the people you want to write for.
William Zinsser
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The writer who cares about usage must always know the quick from the dead.
William Zinsser
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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.
William Zinsser
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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
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Get people talking. Learn to ask questions that will elicit answers about what is most interesting or vivid in their lives. Nothing so animates writing as someone telling what he thinks or what he does - in his own words. His own words will always be better than your words, even if you are the most elegant stylist in the land.
William Zinsser
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Good writing is lean and confident.
William Zinsser
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You learn to write by writing.
William Zinsser