Quotes About Revision

We write and write and write until we think, 'If we have to shoot this script, we'll be happy, and it's going to be a great movie.' I meet with all the actors two weeks before, and I ask them, 'What lines don't work? What is uncomfortable for you? What jokes do you think aren't good? If you're not getting it, here's what the joke is.' You fix it.

I think multiple levels of undo would be wonderful, too.

I have a lot of novels that I haven't finished. I usually get 150 pages in and I realize it's not going anywhere. I don't publish everything I write. I must have six unfinished novels at least.

I believe Jack Smith might have written THE BOOK on writing and revising for publication. Clean, direct, succinct--a book that is full of pure wisdom and truth, but also amazing technical advice.

Great poets are great copy editors.

Every word a woman writes changes the story of the world, revises the official version.

I'm still very much a believer in the spontaneity of certain kinds of writing. But then you have to eventually, when you're writing a long play, make adjustments along the way - all kinds of adjustments.

I write a lot in my head. The revision goes on internally. It's not spontaneous and it doesn't have a schedule.

I wrote about 22 plays before 'When You Cure Me,' which was staged in 2005. I occasionally get them out and have a read, thinking maybe there's a thought or an idea or even a turn of phrase that I could use for something new. There's not. They're dire.

History rewards those who can change their minds when the stakes are high.

the rules had been changed

One should never begrudge deletions.

I had this really great amazing thing happen where I almost finished the book and I really needed to come up with an ending and I decided to go back and re-read the book and see if I could come up with an ending.

The law is only our best approximation of justice, and the law needs constant revision.

There is no point in asking me general questions because I am always changing my mind.

To me, making a tape is like writing a letter – there's a lot of erasing and rethinking and starting again, and I wanted it to be a good one.

To me, making a tape is like writing a letter—there's a lot of erasing and rethinking

To be complete, a journey presupposes the deconstruction of prejudices and stereotypes. A traveler's shift in focus and his revision of priorities and of his mistrust are the clearest manifestations of this process. In this regard, our relations with enemies are of special interest.

At the end of the day, your life is just a story. If you don't like the direction it's going, change it. Rewrite it. When you rewrite a sentence, you erase it and start over until you get it right. Yes, it's a little more complicated with a life, but the principle is the same. And remember, don't let anyone ever tell you that your revisions are not the truth.

I'm the one who still needs rewriting. Don't we all?

Repeat the mantra: Writing is when I make the words. Editing is when I make them not shitty.

Your first draft can and should look like a fucking warzone. That's okay. Don't sweat it, because you survived. Put differently, that first draft of yours has permission to suck. Go forth and care not.

I begin. I write a draft without ever looking back. Without ever touching what's gone before. Because I think it will be shit, so I daren't look back. I write a draft. I start again. I have the text when I start the second draft and then I do the same thing a third time. - To Linda L. Richards, The January Interview

Memories can be treacherous. We all have a hunger to rearrange our histories so as to remember ourselves in the most flattering light.