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...
hard-work writing hard
Writing is hard work.
writing problem writing-well
All writing is ultimately a question of solving a problem.
being-yourself writing trying
Be yourself and your readers will follow you anywhere. Try to commit an act of writing and they will jump overboard to get away.
eloquence transactions invites
Eloquence invites us to bring some part of ourselves to the transaction.
dust want ifs
If you lose the dullards back in the dust, that's where they belong. You don't want them anyway.
being-yourself writing say-anything
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.
anything-goes world
Never let anything go out into the world that you don't understand.
art voice skins
Never hesitate to imitate another writer - every person learning a craft or an art needs models. Eventually you'll find your own voice and will shed the skin of the writer you imitated.
principles crafts never-forget
Never forget that you are practicing a craft with certain principles.
art taken writing
Much of my writing has taken the form of a pilgrimage: to sacred places that represent the best of America, to musicians and other artists who represent the best of their art.
soil lagoons adjectives
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.
events looks calling
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.
art memoir inventing
Memoir is the art of inventing the truth.
lonely fun writing
Writing wasn't easy and wasn't fun. It was hard and lonely, and the words seldom just flowed.