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There's not much to be said about the period except that most writers don't reach it soon enough.

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
Period
Writers
Periods
Reach
Soon
Except
Enough
Much

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Writing wasn't easy and wasn't fun. It was hard and lonely, and the words seldom just flowed.
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Writers can write to affirm and to celebrate, or they can write to debunk and destroy the choice is ours.
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People read with their ears, whether they know it or not.
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Write about small, self-contained incidents that are still vivid in your memory. If you remember them, it's because they contain a larger truth that your readers will recognize in their own lives. Think small and you'll wind up finding the big themes in your family saga.
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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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The writer who cares about usage must always know the quick from the dead.
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The most important sentence in any article is the first one. If it doesn't induce the reader to proceed to the second sentence, your article is dead. And if the second sentence doesn't induce him to continue to the third sentence, it's equally dead.
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Writing is a craft not an art.
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Writing is thinking on paper. Anyone who thinks clearly should be able to write clearly-about any subject at all.
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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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There's no subject you don't have permission to write about. Students often avoid subjects close to their heart ... because they assume that their teachers will regard those topics as 'stupid.' No area of life is stupid to someone who takes it seriously. If you follow your affections you will write well and will engage your readers.
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My four articles of faith: clarity, simplicity, brevity and humanity.
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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.
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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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Abraham Lincoln and Winston Churchill rode to glory on the back of the strong declarative sentence.
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Good writing is lean and confident.
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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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The secret of good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components.
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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
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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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