Quotes About Refinement

I write plays and poetry at the same time, and I'm always refining, but I'm not obsessive about it. It's what I like to do, what I've always wanted to do.

Bling is passe, and I like my style to reflect just that. Ruthless editing defines true style perfectly.

I've refused roles because they're too simplistic.

You don't reinvent yourself; you get better with what you do.

I didn't reinvent clothing; I reinvented the edit.

Sexiness should not be overt. Something shapeless that drapes across your hip, hangs off the shoulder; something that cowls in the front, drapes low in the back, that's sexy.

Blaise rather liked the way that manners had been pared down to their essentials.

The more civilized we become, the more horrendous our entertainments.

There is something urbane, stylish, and worldly about owning a cocktail shaker.

When you do a song new live on stage, it's kind of a bit weird until it gets worn in, you know, like oiled up a bit. It's still a little bit stiff until you really thrashed at it for a few weeks.

When I'm writing, I try to think about what would make a song better before worrying about personal opinions.

For me, it's always the same: worrying about how I can get better, the techniques I can do.

If you're not getting better, you're getting worse.

Those that go gold into the furnace will come out no worse.

Whether you're a programmer or a seamstress, it's all about new techniques, simplifying old techniques, and consolidating steps. Making things go faster - but not worse.

You have to get better every year. You have to add tools to the toolbox every year.

Almost all novels are improved by cutting from the top. On their first pages, authors parade those favourite effects which disgust the impartial reader.

The application of time and skill to frivolous things is the hallmark of civilized society

The thing itself, the first thing, will never do us alone, we must be elaborating, improving, poeticising.

Trifles make perfections, but perfection is itself no trifle.

Precious stones need sculpting before they become gems.

The shiny, varnished seating,

So, the result though is by the time I've got something, it's been worked over so many times that although I do make changes as the end, often by the time I've gotten it, it's pretty much completed.

I'm not so sure it's so civilized to be civilized all the time.