212 Quotes by William Zinsser

The sound of the bat is the music of spring training.

The best way to learn to write is to study the work of the men and women who are doing the kind of writing you want to do.

Telling a writer to relax is like telling a man to relax while being prodded for a possible hernia.

People and places are the twin pillars on which most nonfiction is built. Every human event happens somewhere, and the reader wants to know what that somewhere was like.

One of the saddest sentences I know is "I wish I had asked my mother about that." Or my father. Or my grandmother. Or my grandfather. As every parent knows, our children are not as fascinated by our fascinating lives as we are.

When you're ready to stop, stop. If you have presented all the facts and made the point you want to make, look for the nearest exit.

Writers are the custodians of memory, and that's what this chapter is about: how to leave some kind of record of your life and of the family you were born into.

Nobody told all the new e-mail writers that the essence of writing is rewriting. Just because they are writing with ease and enjoyment doesn't mean they are writing well.

The game is won or lost on hundreds of small details.