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Writing is no respecter of blueprints.

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
Respecter
Blueprints
Writing

More quotes by William Zinsser

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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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Four basic premises of writing: clarity, brevity, simplicity, and humanity.
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Eloquence invites us to bring some part of ourselves to the transaction.
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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 writers job is like solving a puzzle, and finally arriving at a solution is a tremendous satisfaction.
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Writing is thinking on paper.
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Writing is learned by imitation. If anyone asked me how I learned to write, I'd say I learned by reading the men and women who were doing the kind of writing I wanted to do and trying to figure out how they did it.
William Zinsser
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Motivation clears the head faster than a nasal spray.
William Zinsser
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Writing and learning and thinking are the same process.
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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.
William Zinsser
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If writing seems hard, it's because it is hard. It's one of the hardest things people do.
William Zinsser
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Good writers are visible just behind their words.
William Zinsser
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The sound of the bat is the music of spring training.
William Zinsser
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Writing is not a special language that belongs to a few sensitive souls who have a 'gift for words'. Writing is the logical arrangement of thought. Anyone who thinks clearly should be able to write clearly---about any subject at all.
William Zinsser
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Not every oak has to be gnarled, every detective hard-bitten. The adjective that exists solely as a decoration is a self-indulgence for the writer and an obstacle for the reader.
William Zinsser
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Writing is thinking on paper. Anyone who thinks clearly should be able to write clearly-about any subject at all.
William Zinsser
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Be grateful for every word you can cut.
William Zinsser
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You learn to write by writing.
William Zinsser
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Don’t try to visualize the great mass audience. There is no such audience—every reader is a different person.
William Zinsser
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Writing is hard work.
William Zinsser