Nobody ever stopped reading E. B. White or V. S. Pritchett because the writing was too good.
William ZinsserWriters can write to affirm and to celebrate, or they can write to debunk and destroy; the choice is ours.
William ZinsserI try to make what I have written tighter, stronger and more precise, eliminating every element that's not doing useful work. Then I go over it once more, reading it aloud, and am always amazed at how much clutter can still be cut.
William ZinsserEvery time you look at a blank piece of paper, you're doing something new. You have to step onto that blank territory and remind yourself the sky didn't fall in the last time you wrote. Writing is a question of overcoming your fears-and everybody has them.
William ZinsserAbraham Lincoln and Winston Churchill rode to glory on the back of the strong declarative sentence.
William ZinsserWriters who think THEY are being criticized when only that writing is being criticized are beyond a teacher's reach. Writing can only be learned when a writer coldly separates himself from what he has written and looks at it with the objectivity of a plumber examining a newly piped bathroom to see if he got all the joints tight.
William Zinsser