William Zinsser Quotes
One of underestimated tasks in nonfiction writing is to impose narrative shape on an unwieldy mass of material.
Quotes to Explore
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Writing an essay is like a school assignment: I have my topic, I organize my thoughts, and I write it. I have complete control over what I'm doing. Writing a novel is like setting out on a journey without knowing who or what I'll encounter, how long it's going to take, or where I'm going to end up.
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I wasn't one of those kids who grew up wanting to write or who read a particular book and thought: 'I want to do that!' I always told stories and wrote them down, but I never thought writing was a career path, even though, clearly, someone was writing the books and newspapers and magazines.
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It usually takes me 20 to 90 minutes to write a song because once I start, I don't stop. If I start writing a song, and you try to have a conversation with me, you're a bad person.
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I didn't have that thing that Michael Bolton did; my star power - my charisma - was not a match to my writing ability.
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Writing anything, it sorta starts the way you'd build a castle at the beach. You're just taking your hands and you're mounting up sand.
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'(Songwriting) It's a gift. It all comes from somewhere. I started out really young, when I was four, five, six, writing poems, before I could play an instrument. I was writing about things when I was eight or 10 years old that I hadn't lived long enough to experience.'
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It sounds odd, but I was a singer and started writing songs, and I didn't have anything in mind. Maybe it crossed my mind that it would be cool to have a hit record and a career, but that was so out of reach that I don't think I thought about it that much.
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I think I get certain pleasure from writing what I'm performing.
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The more you write, the more you're capable of writing.
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Have a working spouse, because you won't earn a living from writing - not at first, if ever. My wife worked for years to support us.
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Writing is a really good first step toward that goal of knowing yourself.
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I did try to write stories in college because I was interested in writing, and I was interested in the sound of language, but I was just no good at narrative and at fiction.
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When you start early, and you're writing for free, there's a lot of producers that will take advantage of you... It is seared in my brain forever.
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Writing a book of poetry is like dropping a rose petal down the Grand Canyon and waiting for the echo.
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I grew up performing in glee club at my school; I was the ostrich in 'Peter Pan,' and then I was super-involved in church choir and worship leading at my church. So I always loved music and was involved with it, but never really thought it was what I wanted to do until I started writing.
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It is not about writing those hits again. I am sure I could write them, but it is about the sensibilities.
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When I first told people I was writing a book, some would say that was interesting, but others thought it was some holiday project and I would lose interest. I think my parents thought the same thing, and they were surprised when I kept going. I'm not sure I thought I would keep going, but then it became a big part of my life.
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I'd been in college studying English creative writing and history when I made the decision to join the Marines in the runup to the Iraq war.
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All our words from loose using have lost their edge.
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A writer can write in an attic, or on top of a bus. Or with a sharp stick in some wet cement. To act, an actor has to have words. A stage. a camera turning.
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Becoming food savvy is one thing, but it's amazing how fast savvy turns to snooty, and snooty leaves you preparing three-hour meals that break your budget and that the kids won't even eat.
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I grew up kind of self-supported, that kind of environment, because my parents both worked for airlines.
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What a writer has to do is write what hasn't been written before or beat dead men at what they have done.
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One of underestimated tasks in nonfiction writing is to impose narrative shape on an unwieldy mass of material.
