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Probably every subject is interesting if an avenue into it can be found that has humanity and that an ordinary person can follow.

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
Person
Follow
Every
Ordinary
Subjects
Probably
Humanity
Interesting
Avenue
Found
Avenues
Persons
Subject

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Few people realize how badly they write. Nobody has shown them how much excess or murkiness has crept into their style.
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Rewriting is the essence of writing well - where the game is won or lost.
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It's a fitting irony that under Richard Nixon launder became a dirty word.
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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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Dare to tell the smallest of stories if you want to generate large emotions.
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Fighting clutter is like fighting weeds-the writer is always slightly behind.
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The sound of the bat is the music of spring training.
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Clear thinking becomes clear writing one can't exist without the other.
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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.
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Four basic premises of writing: clarity, brevity, simplicity, and humanity.
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All writers should strive to deliver something fresh-something editors or readers won't know they want until they see it.
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Writing improves in direct ratio to the things we can keep out of it that shouldn't be there.
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I have no interest in teaching writers how to sell. I want to teach them how to write. If the process is sound, the product will take care of itself, and sales are likely to follow.
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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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Writing is hard work.
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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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Be wary of security as a goal. It may often look like life's best prize. Usually it's not.
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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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A writer will do anything to avoid the act of writing.
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Examine every word you put on paper. You'll find a surprising number that don't serve any purpose.
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