BEST William Zinsser Books & Quotes of All Time (February 2023)

by Arthur Worsley
M.A. Psychology, Oxford. McKinsey Alum. Founder & Editor at TAoL.

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Contents

1. Who Was William Zinsser?

2. The Best William Zinsser Books of All Time

3. More Books Like William Zinsser's Books

4. Best William Zinsser Quotes

5. Wish There Was a Faster/Easier Way?

Who Was William Zinsser?

William Zinsser (October 7, 1922 – May 12, 2015) was an American writer, editor, literary critic, and teacher. He began his career as a journalist for the New York Herald Tribune, where he worked as a feature writer, drama editor, film critic and editorial writer. He was a longtime contributor to leading magazines.

Learn more about William Zinsser

The Best William Zinsser Books of All Time

Why these best William Zinsser books and not others? To stay objective, I rank all my book recommendations by a combination of what’s most loved (Goodreads rating), what’s most popular (Goodreads review count) and what’s proven timlessly relevant (first publication date).

This isn’t a whimsical list. It’s a data-driven, crowdsourced collection of the best William Zinsser books ever published as decided by book lovers like you.

And if you think something's missing? I LOVE book recommendations so if there are any other books by William Zinsser that you think deserve mentioning, email me and I’ll be sure to include them in the next round of updates.

Until then, here are the best William Zinsser books of all time...

Best William Zinsser Books: On Writing Well

1. On Writing Well - William Zinsser (FREE Summary)

The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction

On Writing Well is a book so brimming with literary wisdom that it feels like you're clutching a living brain. Writing, about writing, for writers - by writer, editor, critic, teacher and captain of the craft, William Zinsser.

Published 1976 // 336 pages // Rated 4.2 over 25,200 reviews on Goodreads

Best William Zinsser Books: Writing About Your Life

2. Writing About Your Life - William Zinsser

A Journey into the Past

Published 2004 // 228 pages // Rated 4.1 over 500 reviews on Goodreads

Best William Zinsser Books: Extraordinary Lives

3. Extraordinary Lives - William Zinsser

The Art and Craft of American Biography

Published 1986 // 139 pages // Rated 3.9 over 300 reviews on Goodreads

Best William Zinsser Books: Inventing the Truth

4. Inventing the Truth - William Zinsser

The Art and Craft of Memoir

Published 1987 // 240 pages // Rated 3.9 over 700 reviews on Goodreads

Best William Zinsser Books: Writing to Learn

5. Writing to Learn - William Zinsser

How to Write--And Think--Clearly about Any Subject at All

Published 1988 // 272 pages // Rated 3.9 over 1,000 reviews on Goodreads

Best William Zinsser Books: Writing Places

6. Writing Places - William Zinsser

The Life Journey of a Writer and Teacher

Published 2009 // 208 pages // Rated 4.1 over 200 reviews on Goodreads

See all William Zinsser's books on Amazon
Visit William Zinsser's Goodreads profile

More Books Like William Zinsser's Books

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Best William Zinsser Quotes

Here are some of the best William Zinsser of all time...

"Nobody told all the new computer writers that the essence of writing is rewriting. Just because they’re writing fluently doesn’t mean they’re writing well."

- William Zinsser, On Writing Well

"The professional writer must establish a daily schedule and stick to it… writing is a craft, not an art, and… the man who runs away from his craft because he lacks inspiration is fooling himself. He is also going broke… if your job is to write every day, you learn to do it like any other job."

- William Zinsser, On Writing Well

"Ultimately the product that any writer has to sell is not the subject being written about, but who he or she is."

- William Zinsser, On Writing Well

"The secret of good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components. Every word that serves no function, every long word that could be a short word, every adverb that carries the same meaning that’s already in the verb, every passive construction that leaves the reader unsure of who is doing what – these are the thousand and one adulterants that weaken the strength of a sentence."

- William Zinsser, On Writing Well

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

- William Zinsser, On Writing Well

"The reader is someone with an attention span of 30 seconds – a persona assailed by many forces competing for attention."

- William Zinsser, On Writing Well

"Writing is hard work. A clear sentence is no accident. Very few sentences come out right the first time, or even the third time."

- William Zinsser, On Writing Well

"First… learn to hammer the nails, and if what you build is sturdy and serviceable, take satisfaction in its plain strength."

- William Zinsser, On Writing Well

"Writing is an intimate transaction between two people, conducted on paper, and it will go well to the extent that it retains its humanity."

- William Zinsser, On Writing Well

"Good writers are visible just behind their words."

- William Zinsser, On Writing Well

"Leaders who bob and weave like ageing boxers don’t inspire confidence – or deserve it. The same thing is true of writers. Sell yourself, and your subject will exert its own appeal. Believe in your own identity and your own opinions. Writing is an act of ego, and you might as well admit it. Use its energy to keep yourself going."

- William Zinsser, On Writing Well

"You are writing primarily to please yourself, and if you go about it with enjoyment you will also entertain the readers who are worth writing for."

- William Zinsser, On Writing Well

"Never say anything in writing that you wouldn’t comfortably say in conversation."

- William Zinsser, On Writing Well

"The race in writing is not to the swift but to the original."

- William Zinsser, On Writing Well

"Make a habit of reading what is being written today and what was written by earlier masters. Writing is learned by imitation… I learned by reading the men and women who were doing the kind of writing I wanted to do and trying to figure out how they did it."

- William Zinsser, On Writing Well

"Get in the habit of using dictionaries… The Thesaurus is to the writer what a rhyming dictionary is to the songwriter – a reminder of all the choices – and you should use it with gratitude."

- William Zinsser, On Writing Well

"Readers read with their eyes. But in fact they hear what they are reading far more than you realize."

- William Zinsser, On Writing Well

"Such considerations of sound and rhythm should go into everything you write. If all your sentences move at the same plodding gait… read them aloud. (I write entirely by ear and read everything aloud before letting it go out into the world.) You’ll begin to hear where the trouble lies."

- William Zinsser, On Writing Well

"You learn to write by writing… The only way to learn to write is to force yourself to produce a certain number of words on a regular basis."

- William Zinsser, On Writing Well

"Every successful piece of nonfiction should leave the reader with one provocative thought that he or she didn’t have before. Not two thoughts, or five – just one. So decide what single point you want to leave in the reader’s mind."

- William Zinsser, On Writing Well

"The most important sentence in any article is the first one. If it doesn’t induce the reader to proceed to the second sentence, your article is dead."

- William Zinsser, On Writing Well

"Take special care with the last sentence of each paragraph – it’s the crucial springboard to the next paragraph."

- William Zinsser, On Writing Well

"The perfect ending should take your readers slightly by surprise and yet seem exactly right."

- William Zinsser, On Writing Well

"Forget the competition and go at your own pace. Your only contest is with yourself."

- William Zinsser, On Writing Well

"Rewriting is the essence of writing well: it’s where the game is won or lost."

- William Zinsser, On Writing Well

"Writing is like a good watch – it should run smoothly and have no extra parts."

- William Zinsser, On Writing Well

"The longer I work at the craft of writing, the more I realize that there’s nothing more interesting than the truth… The assumption is that fact and color are two separate ingredients. They’re not; color is organic to the fact. Your job is to present the colorful fact."

- William Zinsser, On Writing Well

"Most men and women lead lives, if not of quiet desperation, at least of desperate quietness, and they will jump at a chance to talk about their work to an outsider who seems eager to listen."

- William Zinsser, On Writing Well

"Writing is thinking on paper. Anyone who thinks clearly can write clearly, about anything at all."

- William Zinsser, On Writing Well

"Quality is its own reward."

- William Zinsser, On Writing Well

"My favourite definition of a careful writer comes from Joe DiMaggio, though he didn’t know that’s what he was defining… A reporter once asked him how he managed to play so well so consistently, and he said ‘I always thought that there was at least one person in the stands who had never seen me play, and I didn’t want to let him down.'"

- William Zinsser, On Writing Well

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