People and places are the twin pillars on which most nonfiction is built. Every human event happens somewhere, and the reader wants to know what that somewhere was like.

Nobody told all the new e-mail writers that the essence of writing is rewriting. Just because they are writing with ease and enjoyment doesn't mean they are writing well.

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

The most important sentence in any article is the first one. If it doesn't induce the reader to proceed to the second sentence, your article is dead. And if the second sentence doesn't induce him to continue to the third sentence, it's equally dead.

Nobody becomes Tom Wolfe overnight, not even Tom Wolfe.

Nobody ever stopped reading E. B. White or V. S. Pritchett because the writing was too good.

Fighting clutter is like fighting weeds-the writer is always slightly behind.