Best Editing Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings Page 3

“Of every four words I write, I strike out three.”

“I came to a dead stop and began major revisions. Sometimes these entailed the shredding of all existing manuscript for a fresh start - an inefficient way to write a book, though I found it exciting.”

Way Writing Book Sometimes Found Majors Exciting Editing Manuscripts Revision Fresh Start Shredding

Author:William Manchester

“I think the hardest thing to teach a student is that what he or she puts down on paper is changeable. It's not the final thing, it's the first thing, which may just be the suggestive, vague identification of something that you have to come back to and rewrite.”

Thinking Firsts May Teach Students Paper Finals Hardest Editing Vague Hardest Thing Identification

Author:M. H. Abrams

“I took courses at USC in film editing and art direction and photography when I was still in high school.”

Art Stills School Film Courses Photography High School Editing Usc Art Direction

Author:Ray Harryhausen

“There is no artifice as good and desirable as simplicity.”

Writing Simplicity Editing Desirable Artifice

Book:The Spiritual Maxims of Saint Francis de Sales

Source: The Spiritual Maxims of Saint Francis de Sales

“Will you tell me my fault, frankly as to yourself, for I had rather wince, than die. Men do not call the surgeon to commend the bone, but to set it, Sir.”

Men Dies Faults Bones Editors Editing Surgeons Wince

Book:Selected Letters

Source: Selected Letters

“I like to edit my sentences as I write them. I rearrange a sentence many times before moving on to the next one. For me, that editing process feels like a form of play, like a puzzle that needs solving, and it's one of the most satisfying parts of writing.”

Needs Feels Writing Play Moving Form Next Process Sentences Satisfying Editing Puzzles Edits The Next One One For Me

Author:Karen Thompson Walker

“I find that the majority of the year, I don't spend acting. I spend it either writing or editing or producing, or putting things together. So it's as shocking as it is tragic. I really enjoy it. It's a valuable skill set. I certainly feel like more of a grownup.”

Feels Writing Years Together Enjoy Acting Skills Majority Valuable Tragic Editing Shocking Grownups

Author:Charlie Day

“It's been 50 years since I was on the roof of my parents' house shooting Hag in a Black Leather Jacket when I didn't even know there was such a thing as editing. I thought you just shot the film and showed it. That's exactly what I did. I'm not that different 50 years later.”

Knows Years Different Film House Parent Black Shots Shooting Roof Editing Jackets Leather Leather Jackets

Author:John Waters

“I try to just save a fresh, clear head for whoever I'm working with, so hopefully it's helpful that there's someone who doesn't have to sit in the editing room for 12 hours a day, and who's blinded by the massive footage and options that they have.”

Trying Hours Rooms Clear Hopefully Helpful Massive Editing Blinded Clear Head

Author:Judd Apatow

“Every time I'm in editing, there's always a moment where you think, "Maybe this should be six or seven minutes shorter, but I'm losing character and story that I think is important." When I like things, I'm not in a rush for them to end.”

Thinking Should Important Ends Moments Character Stories Minutes Six Losing Seven Editing

Author:Judd Apatow

“When you are acting in a film, you have no idea what scene the editor is going to choose. For instance, after you have directed, you feel more comfortable delivering a performance. Because you know the real performance is put together in the editing room.”

Knows Feels Ideas Real Together Film Rooms Acting Scene Comfortable Performances Instance No Idea Editors Editing Delivering

Author:Dolph Lundgren

“[My mom] is quite the strict editor. I feel like maybe she has more of the old-school editing style, which really works in picture books, because you don't want to articulate anything in words that is already shown through the pictures.”

Want Feels Book School Style Mom My Mom Editors Editing Strict Old School Picture Books

Author:Jenna Bush

“A lot of people, myself included, are excited about blogging and stuff like that, citizen journalism, but I do remind people that no matter how excited we are, there's no substitute for professional writing, no substitute for professional editing, and no substitute for professional fact-checking.”

People Writing Matter Facts Stuff Citizens Excited Journalism Substitutes Editing Blogging Professional Writing Citizen Journalism

Author:Craig Newmark

“Once you start to realize that a film is the sum of its editing, then editing is the thing you're always looking at.”

Film Realizing Editing

Author:Anthony Minghella

“A film is born in my head and I kill it on paper. It is brought back to life by the actors and then killed in the camera. It is then resurrected into a third and final life in the editing room where the dismembered pieces are assembled into their finished form.”

Film Form Actors Born Rooms Pieces Paper Thirds Cameras Finals Finished Editing

Author:Robert Bresson

“Even if I'd stayed [in the US to finish 'The Magnificent Ambersons'] I would've had to make compromises on the editing, but these would've been mine and not the fruit of confused and often semi-hysterical committees. If I had been there myself I would have found my own solutions and saved the pictures in a form which would have carried the stamp of my own effort.”

Ifs Form Found My Own Effort Mines Solutions Fruit Saved Compromise Confused Magnificent Editing Committees Stamps Hysterical

Author:Orson Welles

“As for my style, for my vision of the cinema, editing is not simply one aspect; it's the aspect.”

Vision Style Aspect Cinema Editing

Author:Orson Welles

“People come up to me and say "Steve, what is film editing?" And I say "How should I know? You're the director.”

People Knows Should Film Directors Come Up Should I Editing

Author:Steve Martin

“There's something cathartic about swearing 150 times after spending ten hours in the editing room.”

Hours Rooms Ten Spending Editing Swearing Cathartic

Author:Liev Schreiber

“To be a film director is not a democracy, it's really a tyranny. You're the head of the project, for better rather than worse. I write the film and I direct the film, I decide who's going to be in it, I decide on the editing, I put in the music from my own record collection.”

Writing Film My Own Democracy Records Directors Projects Direct Tyranny Collections Editing Film Directors

Author:Woody Allen

“The content dictates the style all the time. That's the way it is. If the content of the film - as in Husbands and Wives - is highly jagged, neurotic, fast-paced, nervous New York film, it just called for that kind of shooting, editing and performance.”

Ifs Way Kind Film Style Performances Shooting Editing Neurotic Fast Paced

Author:Woody Allen

“I never ever see a film of mine after I release it to the public. I see it when I shoot it in my dailies and while I'm editing it, re-editing it and reshooting it and all that. By the time it's finished I never want to see it again.”

Want Film Mines Finished Release Editing

Author:Woody Allen

“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.”

Form Space Honesty Painting Artistic Realism Editing Realist Hallmark

Author:Philip Pearlstein

“The big issue was cutting. I finally cut as much as I could, about a fourth of the story, and actually liked it.”

Stories Bigs Issues Cutting Fourth Editing

Author:ZZ Packer

“Should novels generally be 600 pages? No, they should not. Half of writing, maybe 3/4 of writing, is editing. This seems to be a thing that has not gotten through to them. It's my impression that you could get rid of half of most of these books. These people are not good enough to be this long, but they're apparently also not good enough to be shorter.”

People Should Writing Long Book Enough Seems Half Novel Pages Impression Good Enough Editing Not Good Enough

Author:Fran Lebowitz

“When I use a direct manipulation system whether for text editing, drawing pictures, or creating and playing games I do think of myself not as using a computer but as doing the particular task. The computer is, in effect, invisible. The point cannot be overstressed: make the computer system invisible.”

Thinking Use Games Effects Particular Computer Creating Tasks Direct Drawing Invisible Manipulation Editing Playing Games Computer Systems Drawing Pictures

Author:Donald A. Norman

“To a writer, madness is a final distillation of self, a final editing down. It's the drowning out of false voices.”

Self Voice Madness Finals Editing Drowning Distillation

Author:Don DeLillo

“My metaphor for acting in movies - not on stage because it's completely different on stage - is to put colors on an easel for the director to paint his own painting with in the editing room, long after I've left. You buy me for red and black, so I better give you really great red and black, but if I can give you purple, pink, green and brown too, I will.”

Ifs Giving Long I Can Different Left Black Rooms Acting Stage Color Painting Directors Red Green Paint Metaphor Brown Editing Really Great Purple Acting In Movies Red And Black

Author:Scott Glenn

“I've lived through the shooting of movie, the editing and every other process along the way, so it's not for me to really judge it. I'll probably look at it again five years from now to get a fresh feel for it.”

Way Feels Years Looks Process Five Judging Shooting Five Years Editing

Author:Clint Eastwood

“Believe it or not, I don't collaborate with women, though my agent and editor are both females. For the most part, they do little editing on my characters.”

Believe Littles Character Female Agents Editors Editing

Author:Nicholas Sparks

“To make a movie charming, you have to be playful on all levels and open to ideas, and you have to have an idea for how to do that within the confines of the shooting schedule and editing and all that.”

Ideas Levels Shooting Charming Editing Schedules

Author:Lasse Hallstrom

“My wife convinced me to try doing the restorations digitally. I thought I could learn the photo editing software over the Thanksgiving weekend. It took me until May of the next year before I sold anything I did with it.”

Trying Years May Next Wife Photography My Wife Convinced Software Weekend Editing Next Year Restoration Editing Software

Author:Donald Lambert

“You can't revise a blank page.”

Pages Blank Editing Blank Pages

Author:Leonard Wolf

“In the editing process, I delete what I do not want to use, move what remains around if necessary and add elements that I feel will make my visual statement as clear and understandable as possible.”

Ifs Want Feels Use Moving Process Clear Elements Remains Add Statements Visuals Editing

Author:Gerald Brommer

“Editing and selectivity are processes that provide the first steps in determining and conveying content.”

Firsts Process Steps First Steps Editing Conveying

Author:Gerald Brommer

“Objectivity can only be the author's and therefore subjective, even if he is editing a newsreel.”

Ifs Editing Subjective Objectivity

Author:Andrei Tarkovsky

“Fate often allows a future to take shape with no regard for our expectation, plan, or readiness. Fate's skillful editing of our life choices is like the careful grooming of lads on their first day of school: combed, polished, scrubbed, newly dressed, and glowing too. This is how we become ready for our life lessons.”

Source: The Power of Coincidence: How Life Shows Us What We Need to Know

“Some artists, such as Jack Kirby, need no plot at all. I mean I'll just say to Jack, "Let's let the next villain be Dr. Doom" ... or I may not even say that. He may tell me. And then he goes home and does it. He's so good at plots, I'm sure he's a thousand times better than I. He just makes up the plots for these stories. All I do is a little editing ... I may tell him that he's gone too far in one direction or another. Of course, occasionally I'll give him a plot, but we're practically both the writers on the things.”

Needs Giving May Mean Littles Doe Stories Home Artist Courses Next Gone Thousand Plot Villain Drs Editing Doom One Direction

Book:Stan Lee: conversations

Source: Stan Lee: conversations

“If you are a professional writer - i.e., if someone else is getting paid to worry about how your words are formatted and printed - Emacs outshines all other editing software in approximately the same way that the noonday sun does the stars. It is not just bigger and brighter; it simply makes everything else vanish.”

Ifs Way Doe Stars Worry Sun Bigger Paid Software Editing Printed Brighter Editing Software

Author:Neal Stephenson

“To write three series a year you only need to commit to writing 10 pages per day, or editing 50 pages of text per day. Plus, writing is my job, and I need to write to eat, so I'm highly motivated to get up and get to work!”

Needs Writing Years Jobs Three Pages Series Commit Get Up Plus Motivated Editing

Author:Victoria Laurie

“Performance is made in the editing room, and I've come to see the truth in that - the idea that they say performances are usually made in the editing room because what you film is the raw material. I think just going through the process of saying, "Which take do we use? Why is that the take we want? I want that take can you edit again, I'm not sure that's the one, I think it's this one." And just because you go through that process, I think somehow it's made me sort of more open about the [actor's] possibilities.”

Thinking Want Made Ideas Use Film Actors Process Rooms Possibility Materials Performances Not Sure Editing Edits Raw Materials

Author:Ralph Fiennes

“Having gone through editing process, I can see that in actor's faces there's point where they're not managing their performance and that's, I think, the best place to be. You've done the homework, you've learned the lines, at that point you just sort of let it out.”

Thinking I Can Done Faces Actors Process Lines Gone Performances Be You Editing Homework Best Place

Author:Ralph Fiennes

“I have a great editor and I enjoy, in a masochistic way, being ruthless about my own performance. How do I know, but I think I'm quite good at saying, "That's no good. That's no good. That's it. That's it. That's good." And I'm with the editor who goes, "No, I think you're wrong. That's not your best." There's an initial point in the editing, if you're directing yourself, especially in my case, where you go, "Ouch, ouch, ouch, I can't watch this." And then, there's a point where you become hard-nosed and just take your neurosis away and go, "What's working? That's okay. That's okay. We can lose that, and lose that." You get objective about it.”

Ifs Way I Can Hard Enjoy Loses My Own Watches Cases Okay Performances Objectives Editors Editing Initials Ruthless Neurosis Ouch Masochistic

Author:Ralph Fiennes

“When I started editing on my home computer, I said to myself, 'Well, I could be at home studying for a class or I could be at home editing a video.'”

Wells Said Home Class Study Computer Video Editing

Author:Joseph Gordon-Levitt

“Our whole dream for our home was for it to be an artist's haven. So there are paint supplies; there's a piano with a microphone and a recorder right there to capture things right in the second. There's editing equipment. There are cameras. I think the only thing in our house that people would be surprised by is the efficiency.”

People Thinking Whole Home Dream Would Be Artist House Havens Cameras Paint Piano Capture Efficiency Editing Equipment Supplies Microphones Recorders

Author:Will Smith

“I'm organizing documentary films, and whenever scriptwriting gets too tedious I go to my editing room and start to edit the documentary, even if I don't have the full funding yet. So you have to keep yourself busy, you have to like the subject matter.”

Ifs Matter Film Rooms Subjects Busy Editing Documentaries Funding Subject Matter Edits Tedious Documentary Films

Author:Haile Gerima

“I know when something is done and when it isn't. There's been times working on movies when they [moviemakers] lock in a release date and so you're stuck to that schedule. But sometimes you're still editing and you feel like you're not really done, but they're sort of releasing the movie anyway - that's kind of depressing.”

Knows Feels Kind Stills Sometimes Done Like You Stuck Release Depressing Locks Editing Schedules Release Date

Author:Rob Zombie

“In early days, I showed everything I made. There was no such thing as editing a collection. In the '80s, it got to the point where we'd have shows with a hundred looks. You'd want to order a pizza before it was over!”

Want Looks Made Shows Order Hundred Collections Editing 80s Pizza

Author:Michael Kors

“Sometimes I think it is ... frustration with life as it is lived day to day that compels me to write such long letters to people who seldom reply in kind, if indeed they reply at all. Somehow by compressing and editing the events of my life, I infuse them with a dramatic intensity totally lacking at the time, but oddly enough I find that years later what I remember is not the event as I lived it but as I described it in a letter.”

People Ifs Thinking Writing Years Kind Long Sometimes Enough Remember Events Letters Dramatic Frustration Intensity Lacking Editing Day To Day

Book:A Woman of Independent Means

Source: A Woman of Independent Means

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Editing Quotes