Clutter is the disease of American writing. We are a society strangling in unnecessary words, circular constructions, pompous frills and meaningless jargon. - P6
My purpose is to make myself and my experience available. If readers connect with my book it’s because they don’t think they’re hearing from an English professor. They’re hearing from a working writer.
That will still require plain old hard thinking—what E. B. White was doing in his boathouse—and the plain old tools of the English language.
I said that writing is a craft, not an art, and that the man who runs away from his craft because he lacks inspiration is fooling himself. He is also going broke. - P3
Ultimately the product that any writer has to sell is not the subject being written about, but who he or she is. - P5
This is the personal transaction that’s at the heart of good nonfiction writing. Out of it come two of the most important qualities that this book will go in search of: humanity and warmth. - P5
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