Never say anything in writing that you wouldn't comfortably say in conversation. Be yourself when you write. If you're not a person who says 'indeed' or 'moreover,' or who calls someone an individual ('he's a fine individual'), please don't write it.

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

Writing is thinking on paper.

Not every oak has to be gnarled, every detective hard-bitten. The adjective that exists solely as a decoration is a self-indulgence for the writer and an obstacle for the reader.

Few people realize how badly they write. Nobody has shown them how much excess or murkiness has crept into their style.

Be grateful for every word you can cut.

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