212 Quotes by William Zinsser

Keep your paragraphs short. Writing is visual - it catches the eye before it has a chance to catch the brain.

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

A writer will do anything to avoid the act of writing.

Make a habit of reading what is being written today and what has been written before. Writing is learned by imitation.

Many writers are paralyzed by the thought that they are competing with everybody else who is trying to write and presumably doing it better.... Forget the competition and go at your own pace. Your only contest is with yourself.

If writing seems hard, it's because it is hard. It's one of the hardest things people do.

Writing organizes and clarifies our thoughts. Writing is how we think our way into a subject and make it our own. Writing enables us to find out what we know-and what we don't know-about whatever we're trying to learn.

A simple [writing] style is the result of very hard work.

Clutter is the disease of American writing,