Quotes About Editing

Editing is not merely a method of the junction of separate scenes or pieces, but is a method that controls the 'psychological guidance' of the spectator.

Editors never buy manuscripts that are left on the closet shelf at home.

You have all the scenes. Just go home and word it in.

My wife is my in-home editor and reads everything I write.

I suggest that it is the honesty of the attempt to recreate the forms and spaces visually without artistic editing that is one of the hallmarks of realist painting.

Often you must turn your stylus to erase, if you hope to write anything worth a second reading.

I believe more in the scissors than I do in the pencil.

A successful book is not made of what is in it, but what is left out of it.

I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.

I made this [letter] very long, because I did not have the leisure to make it shorter.

Writing is like making love, editing is like giving your great grandfather a sponge bath.

It's easier to revise lousy writing than to revise a blank sheet of paper.

Substitute "damn" every time you're inclined to write "very"; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.

If I had more time I would write a shorter letter.

Remember, it is no sign of weakness or defeat that your manuscript ends up in need of major surgery. This is a common occurrence in all writing, and among the best writers.

All writing is rewriting.

A really well-done first draft of a book bares your soul. The purpose of revision is so that everyone who reads the published version believes you were writing about theirs.

I've been a teacher at the college level, in composition mostly, and I've been an editor on magazines.

I keep going over a sentence. I nag it, gnaw it, pat and flatter it.

You don't make a great museum by putting all the art in the world into a single room. That's a warehouse. What makes a museum great is the stuff that's not on the walls. Someone says no. A curator is involved, making conscious decisions about what should stay and what should go. There's an editing process. There's a lot more stuff off the walls than on the walls. The best is a sub-sub-subset of all the possibilities.

It's the stuff you leave out that matters. So constantly look for things to remove, simplify, and streamline. Be a curator. Stick to what's truly essential.

On Writing Well by William Zinsser The Elements of Style by William Strunk and E. B. White Revising Prose by Richard Lanham

Well, Toronto, I consider to be the birthplace of my films. I've made three films and this is the third one to premiere here in the same theater on the same day at the same time - they are my audience. They're the people that I think about while I'm writing, directing, and editing. I specifically make movies for them.

when you go over it, cut out everything you can. The main thing is to know what to leave out. The way you tell whether you're going good is by what you can throw away.