William Zinsser Quotes

Writing is learned by imitation. I learned to write mainly by reading writers who were doing the kind of writing I wanted to do and by trying to figure out how they did it. S. J. Perelman told me that when he was starting out he could have been arrested for imitating Ring Lardner. Woody Allen could have been arrested for imitating S. J. Perelman. And who hasn’t tried to imitate Woody Allen? Students often feel guilty about modeling their writing on someone else’s writing. They think it’s unethical — which is commendable. Or they’re afraid they’ll lose their own identity. The point, however, is that we eventually move beyond our models; we take what we need and then we shed those skins and become who we are supposed to become.

I think a sentence is a fine thing to put a preposition at the end of.

But the secret of good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components. Every words that serves no function, every long word that could be a short word, every adverb that carries the same meaning that's already in the verb, every passive construction that leaves the reader unsure of who is doing what — these are the thousand and one adulterants that weaken the strength of a sentence. And they usually occur in proportion to education and rank,

But what if we fail' they ask, whispering the dreaded word across the Generation Gap to their parents. 'Don't' they whisper back. What they should say is 'Don't be afraid to fail. Failure isn't fatal

It wont do to say that the reader is too dumb or too lazy to keep pace with the train of thought. If the reader is lost, it's usually because the writer hasn't be careful enough.

Thinking clearly is a conscious act that writers must force on themselves,

"...being "rather unique" is no more possible than being rather pregnant."

Writing is a way to explore a question and gain control over it,

A clear sentence is no accident. Very few sentences come out right the first time, or even the third time... If you find that writing is hard, it's because it is hard.

Writing improves in direct ratio to the number of things we can keep out of it that shouldn’t be there.

An idea can have value in itself, but its usefulness diminishes to the extent that you can’t articulate it to someone else.

Probably no subject is too hard if people take the trouble to think and write and read clearly.

Good writing is lean and confident.

One of underestimated tasks in nonfiction writing is to impose narrative shape on an unwieldy mass of material.

Even a poor translator couldn't kill a style that moves with such narrative clarity.