Monologue to the Maestro | Esquire | OCTOBER 1935
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Monologue to the Maestro | Esquire | OCTOBER 1935
One of them asked him what it took to be a humor writer. “Comic writing,” he said, “needs audacity and exuberance and gaiety—and the most important of these is audacity.” Then he said: “The reader has to believe that the writer is feeling good.” The sentence hit with me tremendous force, especially when he added, almost as an afterthought, “even if
... See moreWilliam Zinsser • Writing to Learn: How to Write - and Think - Clearly About Any Subject at All
Two parables:
First, Ezra Pound’s parable of Agassiz, from his “ABC of Reading” (incidentally one of the most underrated books about literature). I’ve preserved his quirky formatting:
No man is equipped for modern thinking until he has understood the anecdote of Agassiz and the fish:
First, Ezra Pound’s parable of Agassiz, from his “ABC of Reading” (incidentally one of the most underrated books about literature). I’ve preserved his quirky formatting:
No man is equipped for modern thinking until he has understood the anecdote of Agassiz and the fish:
A post-graduate student equipped with honours and diplomas went to... See more
How To Understand Things
Andrei Stoica added
Writing to Learn: How to Write - and Think - Clearly About Any Subject at All
William Zinsser • 1 highlight
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S. J. Perelman to talk to my students, and one of them asked him, “What does it take to be a comic writer?” He said, “It takes audacity and exuberance and gaiety, and the most important one is audacity.” Then he said: “The reader has to feel that the writer is feeling good.” The sentence went off in my head like a Roman candle: it stated the entire
... See moreWilliam Zinsser • On Writing Well, 30th Anniversary Edition: An Informal Guide to Writing Nonfiction
Once again I was struck by one of the miracles of the cognitive process—that the act of writing will summon from the buried past exactly what we need exactly when we need it. Memory and intuition and chance associations will always generate a certain percentage of what any writer writes. The remainder is generated by reason.
William Zinsser • Writing to Learn: How to Write - and Think - Clearly About Any Subject at All
julie and added
When I'm talking to students who want to write professionally, I try to draw from simple analogies: the carpenter who is going to make a perfect chair has to know about wood, trees, the body and how it looks when it is in a sitting position. He should know something about the industry first of all. And then he should pick the right wood for color, ... See more
In Her Own Words: Toni Morrison on Writing, Editing, and Teaching
Kechi Ladapo added