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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
Subjects
Probably
Humanity
Interesting
Avenue
Found
Avenues
Persons
Subject
Person
Follow
Every
Ordinary
More quotes by William Zinsser
What I want to do is to make people laugh so that they'll see things seriously.
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Most writers sow adjectives almost unconsciously into the soil of their prose to make it more lush and pretty. The sentences become longer and longer as they fill up with stately elms and graceful boughs and frisky kittens and sleepy lagoons.
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Memoir is the art of inventing the truth.
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Don’t try to visualize the great mass audience. There is no such audience—every reader is a different person.
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Hard writing makes easy reading. Easy writing makes hard reading.
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Writing and learning and thinking are the same process.
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Don't be kind of bold. Be bold.
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If a good word already exists, there is no need to invent something painful.
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
There's no sentence that's too short in the eyes of God.
William Zinsser
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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When you're ready to stop, stop. If you have presented all the facts and made the point you want to make, look for the nearest exit.
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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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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.
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My four articles of faith: clarity, simplicity, brevity and humanity.
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Motivation clears the head faster than a nasal spray.
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Ultimately the product that any writer has to sell is not the subject being written about, but who he or she is.
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Abraham Lincoln and Winston Churchill rode to glory on the back of the strong declarative sentence.
William Zinsser
Never forget that you are practicing a craft with certain principles.
William Zinsser
Writers must constantly ask: what I am trying to say? Surprisingly often, they don't know.
William Zinsser