Quotes About Revision

Would we find that our history books covered things a little differently than the way they actually happened?

But when people know in advance that they'll have to explain themselves, they think more systematically and self-critically. They are less likely to jump to premature conclusions and more likely to revise their beliefs in response to evidence.

Nature provides a first draft, which experience then revises. Ã¢â'¬Â¦ Ã¢â'¬Å"Built-in" does not mean unmalleable; it means "organized in advance of experience.

Goals are in a near-constant state of revision, especially the shorter-term goals, because as you come up against the reality of learning something, you have to adapt to adjust to that reality.

I am returning this otherwise good typing paper to you because someone has printed gibberish all over it and put your name at the top.

Laws and institutions are constantly tending to gravitate. Like clocks, they must be occasionally cleansed, and wound up, and set to true time.

Economists are criticized for not being able to predict the future, but, because the data are incomplete and subject to revision, we cannot even be sure what happened in the recent past. Noisy data make effective policymaking all the more difficult.

The body of Benjamin Franklin, Printer (like the cover of an old book, its contents torn out and stripped of its lettering and gilding), lies here, food for worms; but the work shall not be lost, for it will (as he believed) appear once more in a new and more elegant edition, revised and corrected by the Author.

with an alteration in the mode of assessment, which I thought not for

I don't think it's helpful to go dismantling the past, but you can refuse to honor aspects of it that you don't believe in anymore.

But if the UN cannot or will not revise its rules in ways that establish beyond question the legality of the measures the United States must take to protect the American people, then we should unashamedly and explicitly reject the jurisdiction of these rules.

With any possibly erroneous decision, you can always look back and think you could've done something differently - but always with the benefit of hindsight.

That great dust-heap called 'history'.

A lot of people liked 'Amala,' and that's great. However, I don't think it was a finished album.

Constant work, constant writing and constant revision. The real writer learns nothing from life. He is more like an oyster or a sponge. What he takes in he takes in normally the way any person takes in experience. But it is what is done with it in his mind, if he is a real writer, that makes his art.

I've always said, 'I have nothing to say, only to add.' And it's with each addition that the writing gets done. The first draft of anything is really just a track.

Serbia will neither allow a revision of history, nor will it forget who are the main culprits in World War I.

'Constructed Worlds' comes from a novel draft that I wrote in my early twenties and reread/revised only in my late thirties.

Stories, as much as we like to talk about them, retrospectively, as emanations of theme or worldview or intention, occur primarily as technical objects when they're being written. Or at least they do for me. They're the result of thousands of decisions made at speed during revision.

As a generalization, fantasy writing has leaned more on political storytelling the more it's tried to escape the inevitable influence of Middle-earth, and revise the Eurocentric and Christian tropes that Tolkien's particular worldview bequeathed.

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

The worst thing is the blank page at the start. Then the horrible things written on the blank page. Then deciding whether or not to throw out those horrible things: lame scenes, lame characters, bad ideas.

The worst thing you can do after a test screening is slash it for the lowest common denominator.

I think too many people edit themselves way too soon. There's plenty of time to edit, and it is a crucial part of it all, too.