"Writing improves in direct ratio to the number of things we can keep out of it that shouldn't be there."

William Zinsser Literature See all quotes by William Zinsser →

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“You must find some way to elevate your act of writing into entertainment.”

“If you write for yourself, you'll reach all the people you want to write for.”

“Memoir is the art of inventing the truth.”

“The writers job is like solving a puzzle, and finally arriving at a solution is a tremendous satisfaction.”

“All writing is ultimately a question of solving a problem.”

“Journalism is writing that first appears in any periodic journal.”

Resonant Thoughts

"We shall see that there is great reason to hope that death is a good, for one of two things: either death is a state of nothingness and utter unconsciousness, or, as men say, there is a change and a m…"

— Socrates

Literature-469–-398

#death

"Well, I think Phil's got a fairly good chance of getting in there, maybe even on a scholarship. It sounds fine; still, all I know about Harvard is the reputation, you know - the outside view. And that…"

— Richard Yates

Literature1860–1936

#time

"I think that the film being made there did an awful lot to dispel that. For the first time there – well, for the first time in the United States – there was a black man riding in that big crane, and h…"

— Gordon Parks

Entertainment1912–2006

#philosophy

"Let me tell you something -- wait a minute. You know one things that's wrong with this country? Everybody gets a chance to have their fair say. My budget did more to fight AIDS than any in history, an…"

— Bill Clinton

Politics1946

#knowledge