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.

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

I almost always urge people to write in the first person. ... Writing is an act of ego and you might as well admit it.

Editors are licensed to be curious.

The sound of the bat is the music of spring training.

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.

You can solve most of your writing problems if you stop after every sentence and ask: what does the reader need to know next?