Quotes by : William Zinsser

But on the question of who you're writing for, don't be eager to please.

Write about small, self-contained incidents that are still vivid in your memory. If you remember them,....

The reader is someone with an attention span of about 30 seconds.

Writing can be taught or learned in the vacuum. We must say to students in every area of knowledge: "This....

Was the whole matter of aptitudes a myth – a copout used by people like me to avoid subjects that would....

If a philosophical writer cannot be followed, the difficulty of his subject can be placed only in mitigation....

Not everybody has a talent for painting, or for the piano, or for dance. But we can write our way into....

Even a poor translator couldn't kill a style that moves with such narrative clarity.

I never think of him as a scholar assaulting me with how much he knows, but as a teacher eager to share....

Beware, then, of the long word that's no better than the short word: "assistance" (help), "numerous"....