William Zinsser Quotes

American writer, editor, journalist, literary critic, and professor

William Knowlton Zinsser (born October 7, 1922 – May 12, 2015 ) was 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, and has been a longtime contributor to leading magazines.

From: Wikiquote (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Alternative Names: William Knowlton Zinsser

From Wikidata (CC0)

Showing quotes in randomized order to avoid selection bias. Click Popular for most popular quotes.

Can (...) principles be taught? Maybe not. But most of them can be learned.

Far too many Americans are prevented from doing useful work because they never learned to express themselves. Contrary to general belief, writing isn’t something that only “writers” do; writing is a basic skill for getting through life.

Ultimately the product that any writer has to sell is not the subject being written about, but who he or she is.