Writing is an act of ego, and you might as well admit it. - William Zinsser

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

Nobody ever stopped reading E. B. White or V. S. Pritchett because the writing was too good.

Yet many writers are paralyzed by the thought that they are competing with everybody else who is trying to write and presumably doing it better. This can often happen in a writing class. Inexperienced students are chilled to find themselves in the same class with students whose byline has appeared in the college newspaper. But writing for the college paper is no great credential; I’ve often found that the hares who write for the paper are overtaken by the tortoises who move studiously toward the goal of mastering the craft.