Quote

Be wary of security as a goal. It may often look like life's best prize. Usually it's not.

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
May
Best
Look
Wary
Looks
Prize
Life
Usually
Like
Security
Goal
Often

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Editors are licensed to be curious.
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As a writer I try to operate within a framework of Christian principles, and the words that are important to me are religious words: witness, pilgrimage, intention.
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Writers must constantly ask: what I am trying to say? Surprisingly often, they don't know.
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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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Never hesitate to imitate another writer. Imitation is part of the creative process for anyone learning an art or a craft. Bach and Picasso didn't spring full-blown as Bach or Picasso they needed models. This is especially true of writing.
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Four basic premises of writing: clarity, brevity, simplicity, and humanity.
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Good writing has an aliveness that keeps the reader reading from one paragraph to the next, and it's not a question of gimmicks to personalize the author.
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You can solve most of your writing problems if you stop after every sentence and ask: what does the reader need to know next?
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Rewriting is the essence of writing well - where the game is won or lost.
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The sound of the bat is the music of spring training.
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To write a good memoir you must become the editor of your own life, imposing on an untidy sprawl of half-remembered events a narrative shape and an organizing idea. Memoir is the art of inventing the truth.
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Be yourself and your readers will follow you anywhere. Try to commit an act of writing and they will jump overboard to get away.
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Motivation clears the head faster than a nasal spray.
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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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Don’t say you were a bit confused and sort of tired and a little depressed and somewhat annoyed. Be tired. Be confused. Be depressed. Be annoyed. Don’t hedge your prose with little timidities. Good writing is lean and confident.
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Nobody becomes Tom Wolfe overnight, not even Tom Wolfe.
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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.
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Write about small, self-contained incidents that are still vivid in your memory. If you remember them, it's because they contain a larger truth that your readers will recognize in their own lives. Think small and you'll wind up finding the big themes in your family saga.
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Decide what you want to do. Then decide to do it. Then do it.
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Don't be kind of bold. Be bold.
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