Editing Quotes

“Let this goue as you find it my way speling houe is the strangest man”
― Timothy Dexter, A Pickle for the Knowing Ones: Or, Plain Truths in a Homespun Dress

“The real art of writing is, of course, in rewriting.”
― A.D. Aliwat, In Limbo

“Editing. It’s like dieting; except a lot more violent.”
― Leya Delray

“Be suspicious of an expert who tells you to cut a seemingly unnecessary moment out of your play. The soul of your play may reside there, quietly, inconspicuously, clothing in its unnecessariness, shining forth in its lack of necessity to be.”
― Sarah Ruhl, 100 Essays I Don't Have Time to Write: On Umbrellas and Sword Fights, Parades and Dogs, Fire Alarms, Children, and Theater

“Truth can’t be edited despite all of the people who have committed the entirety of their lives to that profession.”
― Craig D. Lounsbrough

“I'd been spending my professional life, at GQ and Esquire both, reading fiction by men about men. The sub-subjects: The Land of Marriage. A middle-aged man coming to terms with Something. Extramarital affairs. Hotel rooms. Adult life as unwinnable game. A man trying, and failing, to be a man - whatever that thing was. A wife. A waif. Oh, God, the mothers. How many trailer parks were there upon the greensward? There sure were a lot of trains. Why were there so many prostitutes? And why were so many of the women dead? Rarely did any children appear in the stuff I read, and when they did, they tended to serve as devices for the teaching of moral lessons - touching ones, usually. And the women - voluble, irrational, rarely all that smart, but, with any luck, sexy, sexy, sexy - functioned as instruments to male enlightenment. Oh, if I had a dime for each time I read the sentence "She made me feel alive..." (to which my private stock response was always "And you made her feel dead").”
― Adrienne Miller

“Do not set out to write the next Angela's Ashes, Liars' Club, or Perfect Storm; a third of the projects publishers see these days make such claims.”
― Betsey Lerner

“But in my experience, a writer gravitates toward a certain form or genre because, like a well-made jacket, it suits him.”
― Betsy Lerner, The Forest for the Trees

“There is nothing more refreshing for an editor than to meet a writer or read a query that takes him completely by surprise”
― Betsy Lerner, The Forest for the Trees

“There comes a time when you have to let go of the New Yorker fantasy in service of justing getting on with it [writing].”
― Betsy Lerner, The Forest for the Trees

“Beware of all writers who substitute initials for their give names -”
― Betsy Lerner, The Forest for the Trees

“The trouble is, very few people, even in the least provincial communities, seem to understand that the motive for fiction, or the impulse from which it arises, is a serious one. They think of fiction as having no value except that of amusing and passing the time; and so it is impossible for them to understand why it could not just as well be pleasant and pretty.”
― Maxwell E. Perkins, Editor to Author: The Letters of Maxwell E. Perkins

“She is eager to rewrite the pages. They are too grandiose, too preachy. She has come to appreciate short sentences.”
― Lara Ehrlich, Animal Wife

“The best way to edit your writing, is to record an audiobook of it, because you will be reading every word.”
― Jack Freestone

“Punctuation marks are well-mannered symbols that lead us around like a faithful butler; remove them, and we dance free form ...”
― Nanette L. Avery

“Further editing deepens a story.”
― Adrienne Posey

“Deve-se escrever da mesma maneira com que as lavadeiras lá de Alagoas fazem em seu ofício. Elas começam com uma primeira lavada, molham a roupa suja na beira da lagoa ou do riacho, torcem o pano, molham-no novamente, voltam a torcer. Colocam o anil, ensaboam e torcem uma, duas vezes. Depois enxáguam, dão mais uma molhada, agora jogando água com a mão. Batem o pano na laje ou na pedra limpa, e dão mais uma torcida e mais outra, torcem até não pingar do pano uma só gota. Somente depois de feito tudo isso é que elas dependuram a roupa lavada na corda ou no varal, para secar. Pois quem se mete a escrever devia fazer a mesma coisa. A palavra não foi feita para enfeitar, brilhar como ouro falso; a palavra foi feita para dizer.”
― Graciliano Ramos

“When Tom Wolfe's A Man in Full, his first novel to appear in ten years, plopped its massive self down in the number-one spot on the bestseller list, it seemed as if every major author over sixty lined up, like boys at a dunking booth, to knock him down. Normal Mailer, John Updike, and Harold Bloom felt it incumbent on them [sic] to take a shot at Wolfe in our most influential papers, claiming his work mere entertainment.”
― Besty Levin

“SoundMagix Studio is an audio recording studio in Pune”
― Soundmagix Studio

“Should an unpublished writer spend money for an editor? I did my own due diligence and searched for ones that edited many books in my genre (found one through my writers group), and paid each one handsomely. It was well worth it. Got me traditionally published, each time.”
― Nzondi, Oware Mosaic

“All writing is guilty until proven innocent.”
― A.D. Aliwat, In Limbo

“Every book is a marathon.”
― A.D. Aliwat, In Limbo

“Write on adderall, edit on adderall.”
― A.D. Aliwat, In Limbo

“The reading population of Arizona is small, and the expense of publication great. It is not, therefore, with very bright prospects of pecuniary return that we begin our labors. --Edward E. Cross, "The Weekly Arizonian," March 3, 1859”
― Jo Ann Schmitt, Fighting Editors

“In your future, cultivate productively the bits that you do know; and try to
understand what others do before dismissing them or criticizing them. The world
is a big place with room for many truths, but is too small I think for error, for
unsupported argument, and for attempts to make everyone see and do the same
thing the same way. We just do not know enough.”
― Peter Shillingsburg

“Editing your book can be like wrestling the devil at times but in the end, good triumphs over evil.”
― T.W. Lawless

“By far, the hardest part regarding a work of art, apart from the start, is knowing precisely when to stop...It's growing up, finding that most glowing and top spot, ascending to where its highest peak is reached...before descending for the deepest, darkest drop.”
― Criss Jami

“Write like God is your best friend but edit like a tough bitch.”
― Donna Goddard, Writing: A Spiritual Voice

“There is a thing called precision. There's a thing called editing. Being precise and knowing how to edit - that's the secret of being creative.”
― Jacques d'Aboise

“What has it been like editing comics?

It’s been a real learning experience. I think it makes you a better writer. Suddenly viewing things from that editor’s perspective it makes you aware of so much. I guess I like it. I feel like years of doing comic strips and constantly having to simplify them to fit everything into four little panels has given me tools to look at a piece and cut out excessive verbiage and to get things as concise as possible. It has been really interesting suddenly wearing the editor’s hat and realizing how involved an editor’s job is and how many details they have to keep track of. It’s certainly made me more sympathetic to editors. [laughs] We cartoonists like to complain about them, but it is a tough job.

(Interview with Comicsbeat)”
― Jen Sorensen