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

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Good writers are visible just behind their words.
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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 such lonely work that I try to keep myself cheered up. If something strikes me as funny in the act of writing, I throw it in just to amuse myself. If I think it's funny I assume a few other people will find it funny, and that seems to me to be a good day's work.
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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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Don't be kind of bold. Be bold.
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Writers must constantly ask: what I am trying to say? Surprisingly often, they don't know.
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You learn to write by writing.
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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
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Thought is action in rehearsal.
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Many of us were taught that no sentence should begin with but. If that's what you learned, unlearn it - there's no stronger word at the start. It announces a total contrast with what has gone before, and the reader is thereby primed for the change.
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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.
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Memoir is the art of inventing the truth.
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The writer who cares about usage must always know the quick from the dead.
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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.
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Four basic premises of writing: clarity, brevity, simplicity, and humanity.
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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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Memoir isn't the summary of a life it's a window into a life, very much like a photograph in its selective composition. It may look like a casual and even random calling up of bygone events. It's not it's a deliberate construction.
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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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The sound of the bat is the music of spring training.
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