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Rewriting is the essence of writing well - where the game is won or lost.
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
Wells
Well
Writing
Rewriting
Essence
Game
Games
Lost
More quotes by William Zinsser
The writer who cares about usage must always know the quick from the dead.
William Zinsser
Never forget that you are practicing a craft with certain principles.
William Zinsser
Writing and learning and thinking are the same process.
William Zinsser
Abraham Lincoln and Winston Churchill rode to glory on the back of the strong declarative sentence.
William Zinsser
Editors are licensed to be curious.
William Zinsser
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
Writing is no respecter of blueprints.
William Zinsser
People read with their ears, whether they know it or not.
William Zinsser
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.
William Zinsser
Clutter is the disease of American writing.
William Zinsser
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.
William Zinsser
A clear sentence is no accident.
William Zinsser
Decide what you want to do. Then decide to do it. Then do it.
William Zinsser
Noise is the typographical error and the poorly designed page...Ambiguity is noise. Redundancy is noise. Misuse of words is noise. Vagueness is noise. Jargon is noise.
William Zinsser
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.
William Zinsser
Motivation clears the head faster than a nasal spray.
William Zinsser
Memoir is the art of inventing the truth.
William Zinsser
Dare to tell the smallest of stories if you want to generate large emotions.
William Zinsser
Ultimately the product that any writer has to sell is not the subject being written about, but who he or she is.
William Zinsser
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.
William Zinsser
