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Clutter is the official language used by corporations to hide their mistakes.
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
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Clutter
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More quotes by William Zinsser
A clear sentence is no accident.
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If writing seems hard, it's because it is hard. It's one of the hardest things people do.
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Nobody told all the new e-mail writers that the essence of writing is rewriting. Just because they are writing with ease and enjoyment doesn't mean they are writing well.
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Hard writing makes easy reading. Easy writing makes hard reading.
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A simple [writing] style is the result of very hard work.
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Never forget that you are practicing a craft with certain principles.
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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.
William Zinsser
Writers who think THEY are being criticized when only that writing is being criticized are beyond a teacher's reach. Writing can only be learned when a writer coldly separates himself from what he has written and looks at it with the objectivity of a plumber examining a newly piped bathroom to see if he got all the joints tight.
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One of underestimated tasks in nonfiction writing is to impose narrative shape on an unwieldy mass of material.
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Clear thinking becomes clear writing one can't exist without the other.
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Today the outlandish becomes routine overnight. The humorist is trying to say that it's still outlandish.
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Motivation clears the head faster than a nasal spray.
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Writing and learning and thinking are the same process.
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Clutter is the disease of American writing.
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But nothing has replaced the writer. He or she is still stuck with the same old job of saying something that other people will want to read.
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Eloquence invites us to bring some part of ourselves to the transaction.
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Don't be kind of bold. Be bold.
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Not everybody has a talent for painting, or for the piano, or for dance. But we can write our way into the artist's head and into his problems and solutions. Or we can go there with another writer.
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You'll never make your mark as a writer unless you develop a respect for words and a curiosity about their shades of meaning that is almost obsessive. The English language is rich in strong and supple words. Take the time to root around and find the ones you want
William Zinsser
The game is won or lost on hundreds of small details.
William Zinsser
