Quotes About Polishing

Writing for me is largely about rewriting.

Good stories are not written, they are rewritten

There was a sad fellow over on a bar stool talking to the bartender, who was polishing a glass and listening with that plastic smile people wear when they are trying not to scream.

Good writing is essentially rewriting.

You'll learn that the key to a great book is editing-grindin g, buffing, and polishing-not writing.

All writing is rewriting.

If you ask me what I'd rather be doing, well, I'd rather be home in California, watching TV, polishing my tools and working around the ranch.

If it sounds like writing, I rewrite.

Rule of Optimization: Prototype before polishing. Get it working before you optimize it.

But is he awake, or just drunk, dreaming of a voluptuous conquistador maiden polishing his sword?

The only kind of writing is rewriting.

As a very experienced writer once told me, 'It's in the rewrites'.

Our modern society is engaged in polishing and decorating the cage in which man is kept imprisoned.

Having already worked in publishing for a number of years, I was not naive when I entered the submission fray. I knew I would have only one chance to submit my fiction to my agent, and that she would have only one chance to submit it to publishers. So I held on to it, revising and polishing obsessively over twenty-three drafts before I shared it with my agent.

Editing is more by-the-hip. You look at a text and ask yourself how it can be improved.

The book really comes to life in the rewriting.

Decisions are beautiful. They are the evidence of thought and care. Decisions are the polishing cloths of life.

I know many writers who first dictate passages, then polish what they have dictated. I speak, then I polish - occasionally I do windows.

The life of an editor is not a glamorous one. You're a fixer; you make things better.

Yes, I find it therapeutic to clean my vessels and polish them. I like to water my plants and clean all the artefacts in my house.

Ten times as much polishing is definitely not ten times as good. Whether you're polishing a piece of furniture or an idea, the benefits diminish quickly. The polishing turns into stalling.

Rien drew back among the other upstairs maids, twisting the polishing cloth between her hands, but started when Head's hand fell upon her.

The true finish is the work of time, and the use to which a thing is put. The elements are still polishing the pyramids.

In fact, one might make the case that New York would not have shone without its legions of contrary devils polishing the lights of goodness with their inexplicable opposition and resistance.