William Zinsser
William Zinsser
William Knowlton Zinsserwas an American writer, editor, literary critic, and teacher. He began his career as a journalist for the New York Herald Tribune, where he worked as a feature writer, drama editor, film critic and editorial writer. He was a longtime contributor to leading magazines...
writing want helping
There are all kinds of writers and all kinds of methods, and any method that helps you to say what you want to say is the right method for you.
teaching writing care
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.
running writing people
No one has something original or important to say will willing we run the risk of being misunderstood; people who write obscurely are either unskilled in writing or up to mischief
moving emotional pieces
Readers must be given room to bring their own emotions to a piece so crammed with emotional content; the writer must tenaciously resist explaining why the material is so moving.
goal may looks
Be wary of security as a goal. It may often look like life's best prize. Usually it's not.
space adjectives quiver
Avoid the ecstatic adjectives that occupy such disproportionate space in every critic's quiver - words like "enthralling" and "luminous."
want stories emotion
Dare to tell the smallest of stories if you want to generate large emotions.
editors curious
Editors are licensed to be curious.
moving style narrative
Even a poor translator couldn't kill a style that moves with such narrative clarity.
fall writing sky
Every time you look at a blank piece of paper, you're doing something new. You have to step onto that blank territory and remind yourself the sky didn't fall in the last time you wrote. Writing is a question of overcoming your fears-and everybody has them.
writing artist piano
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.
writing simplicity humanity
My four articles of faith: clarity, simplicity, brevity and humanity.
mom dog apples
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.
dirty irony fitting
It is a fitting irony that under Richard Nixon, "launder" became a dirty word.