Good writers are visible just behind their words.

Readers must be given room to bring their own emotions to a piece so crammed with emotional content; the writer must tenaciously resist explaining why the material is so moving.

I 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.

You learn to write by writing.

There's not much to be said about the period except that most writers don't reach it soon enough.

Clear thinking becomes clear writing; one can't exist without the other.

One of underestimated tasks in nonfiction writing is to impose narrative shape on an unwieldy mass of material.