William Zinsser - Word Quotes

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Avoid the ecstatic adjectives that occupy such disproportionate space in every critic's quiver—words like enthralling and luminous.

William Zinsser
You learn to write by writing. It's a truism, but what makes it a truism is that it's true. The only way to learn to write is to force yourself to produce a certain amount of words on a regular basis.

William Zinsser
We are a society strangling in unnecessary words, circular constructions, pompous frills and meaningless jargon.

William Zinsser
Also bear in mind, when you're choosing your words and stringing them together, how they sound. This may seem absurd: readers read with their eyes. But in fact they hear what they are reading far more than you realize.

William Zinsser
You'll never make your mark as a writer unless you develop a respect for words and a curiosity about their shades of meaning that is almost obsessive. The English language is rich in strong and supple words. Take the time to root around and find the ones you want

William Zinsser
Get people talking. Learn to ask questions that will elicit answers about what is most interesting or vivid in their lives. Nothing so animates writing as someone telling what he thinks or what he does — in his own words. His own words will always be better than your words, even if you are the most elegant stylist in the land.

William Zinsser
The secret of good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components. Every word 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...these are the thousand and one adulterants that weaken the strength of a sentence.

William Zinsser
God turns up occasionally as a governing presence, and my sentences take some of their cadences and allusions from the King James Bible. But there's no mention of religious worship or religious belief — the residue of all those Sunday mornings spent in Protestant churches singing the hymns, reciting the Psalms and listening to the Word.

William Zinsser
Examine every word you put on paper. You'll find a surprising number that don't serve any purpose.

William Zinsser
As a writer I try to operate within a framework of Christian principles, and the words that are important to me are religious words: witness, pilgrimage, intention.

William Zinsser
Many of us were taught that no sentence should begin with " but." If that's what you learned, unlearn it — there's no stronger word at the start. It announces a total contrast with what has gone before, and the reader is thereby primed for the change.

William Zinsser
It's a fitting irony that under Richard Nixon "launder" became a dirty word.

William Zinsser
Writing wasn't easy and wasn't fun. It was hard and lonely, and the words seldom just flowed.

William Zinsser