#writing
Explore Books, Authors and Common Highlights on Writing
Showing 79 of 79 highlights
You have to be willing to put in the time to get to the heart of the matter.
From Draft No. 4 by John McPhee
You must be willing to be surprised by what you find.
From Draft No. 4 by John McPhee
Omit needless words.
The writer must have a strong point of view.
From On Writing Well by William Zinsser
You can’t get it right if you don’t get it wrong.
From Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
Good programmers know what to write. Great programmers know what to rewrite.
The art of writing is the art of discovering what you believe.
From Draft No. 4 by John McPhee
Place the emphatic words of a sentence at the end.
The act of writing is an extension of thought, facilitated by the humble pencil.
From The Pencil: A History by Henry Petroski
We write to expose the unexposed.
From Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
Writing is about learning to pay attention and to communicate what is going on.
From Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
Good writing is about the audience.
From On Writing Well by William Zinsser
The most important word in writing is 'revision.'
From On Writing Well by William Zinsser
Publication is not the end; it’s the beginning.
From Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
The act of writing is an act of discovery.
In writing, it is best to keep the subject and the verb close together.
Every piece of writing is a journey into the unknown.
From Draft No. 4 by John McPhee
The writer’s job is to find the material that will make the story come alive.
From Draft No. 4 by John McPhee
Writing is an art form, and like all art forms, it requires practice.
From On Writing Well by William Zinsser
There is no such thing as a good writer; there are only good rewriters.
From On Writing Well by William Zinsser
Do not join independent clauses with a comma.
Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor.
From Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
The only way to get through is to write through.
From Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
Vigorous writing is concise.
The writer's job is to make the reader feel that they have been there.
From On Writing Well by William Zinsser
The writer's task is to make complicated things simple.
From On Writing Well by William Zinsser
The art of deciphering is nearly as old as writing itself.
The beginning of a sentence should be striking.
You should always write with the reader in mind.
From On Writing Well by William Zinsser
Writing, as a form of technology, has had profound impacts on human societies.
From Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond
Avoid the use of qualifiers.
Pencils are not just for writing; they are tools for thinking and problem-solving.
The writer's job is to create the perfect world.
From On Writing Well by William Zinsser
To write is to make a decision about the order of things.
From Draft No. 4 by John McPhee
Writing is a process of discovery.
From On Writing Well by William Zinsser
You are the writer. You are the one who has to make the decision.
From On Writing Well by William Zinsser
The number of a subject determines the number of its verb.
There is no such thing as a perfect sentence.
From On Writing Well by William Zinsser
Use the first person.
There is no such thing as a perfect writing process.
From Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
The act of writing is an act of self-discovery.
From The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron
Use the first person in writing.
A sentence should contain no unnecessary words.
A good writer possesses not only his own spirit but also the spirit of his friends.
Writing is a way of talking without being interrupted.
From Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
A writer is someone who has written something.
From Draft No. 4 by John McPhee
The most important thing is to keep your writing honest.
From On Writing Well by William Zinsser
You have to write the book that wants to be written.
From On Writing Well by William Zinsser
You are writing for yourself, but you are also writing for your readers.
From On Writing Well by William Zinsser
You write to figure out what you think.
From Draft No. 4 by John McPhee
The secret of good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components.
From On Writing Well by William Zinsser
Make sure the reader knows who is speaking.
Place yourself in the background.
It’s not the writing part that’s hard. What’s hard is sitting down to write. What keeps us from sitting down is Resistance.
From The War of Art by Steven Pressfield
Writing is an act of discovery.
From On Writing Well by William Zinsser
You can make anything by writing.
From Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
I think that all writing is a form of prayer.
From Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
The active voice is usually preferable to the passive.
Writing is an act of faith, not a trick of grammar.
From Draft No. 4 by John McPhee
To write is to think, and to think is to live.
Good writing is good thinking.
From On Writing Well by William Zinsser
The challenge is to make the mundane interesting.
From Draft No. 4 by John McPhee
Writing is an act of faith, not a trick of grammar.
From On Writing Well by William Zinsser
Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.
From Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts.
From Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
The active voice is usually stronger than the passive.
A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences.
Avoid a succession of loose sentences.
The only way to get through it is to write the book.
From Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott