Best Editors Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

Source: Imagine: How Creativity Works

“Great writers experience their dreams. They put them on paper, where others can read about them.”

Books Poems Writers Editors Poets Authors Novels Screenwriters

Book:The Price We Must Pay for Our Father's Sins

Source: The Price We Must Pay for Our Father's Sins

“The reading population of Arizona is small, and the expense of publication great. It is not, therefore, with very bright prospects of pecuniary return that we begin our labors. --Edward E. Cross, "The Weekly Arizonian," March 3, 1859”

Writing Money Western Writer Editors Editing Newspaper

Book:Fighting Editors

Source: Fighting Editors

“What can you do if they don’t take it? You can’t go ask: “Why didn’t you take my writing?” They didn’t take it; that’s it. More importantly, I never sent my stuff to them. I knew they wouldn’t publish. But the first non-Hungry writing I had perhaps given to Golpo-Kobita. Subhash and Basudev also wrote in that magazine later. Then, I was also enmeshed in a lot of things…marriage, home, office.”

Life Politics Jealousy Editors

Book:Subimal Basak Sankalan

Source: Subimal Basak Sankalan

“Any book without a mistake in it has had too much money spent on it.”

Book Humour Books Editors Editing

Author:William Collins

“I felt old. Again. It had been happening a lot lately. I did not live the life of an old lady, but I could hear it beckoning to me, like a mermaid on a rock." — Michelle Tea, "Paris: A Lie" from the anthology Pills, Thrills, Chills and Heartache”

Aging Editors Queer Anthology Lgbt Literature First Person Narrative Experimental Clint Catalyst Michelle Tea

Author:Clint Catalyst and MIchelle Tea

“...my editor had crossed out my first go at this sentence and written Hypo=cold, Hyper=hot in the margin, in that helpful yet smug voice editors are born with, wishing to both correct you and impart their correctness upon you at the same time.”

Humor Editors Smugness

Book:Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone

Source: Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone

“But after the war, when editors like Martin Durk came to prominence by trumpeting the timely death of the novel, Parish opted for a reflective silence. He stopped taking on projects and watched with quiet reserve as his authors died off one by one--at peace with the notion that he would join them soon enough in that circle of Elysium reserved for plot and substance and the judicious use of the semicolon.”

Books Editors Editing Grammar Authors Novels Death Of The Novel

Book:Rules of Civility

Source: Rules of Civility

“While writing is like a joyful release, editing is a prison where the bars are my former intentions and the abusive warden my own neuroticism.”

Writing Joy Anxiety Prison Editors Editing Writing Life Neurosis Editing Humor Neurotics

Author:Tiffany Madison

“Most of these editors, as they call themselves, couldn't even effectively edit a haiku.”

Humor Editors Editing Grammar Haiku Grammar Nazis

Author:Frank Black

“Only Southerners have taken horsewhips and pistols to editors about the treatment or maltreatment of their manuscript. This--the actual pistols--was in the old days, of course, we no longer succumb to the impulse. But it is still there, within us.”

Writers Editors Manuscripts Southerners

Book:The Sound And The Fury

Source: The Sound And The Fury

“I think the Coens are great film editors. So great! It’s funny to me because they get hired to doctor scripts all the time, but no one ever hires them to edit.”

Editors Editing Coen Brothers Editing Quotes Script Doctor

Book:The Coen Brothers: This Book Really Ties the Films Together

Source: The Coen Brothers: This Book Really Ties the Films Together

“Editors keep pushing deadline strain while people sleep on benches and subway grates; a welter weight boxer dances on the platform at 125th Street station, commuters look unfazed...”

Editors Homeless Deadline Subway Harlem Disaffected 125th Routine City Nyc Welter Weight

Author:Kristen Henderson, Of My Maiden Smoking

“An early editor characterized my books as 'romantic comedy for intelligent adults.' I think people see them as funny but kind. I don't set out to write either funny or kind, but it's a voice they like, quirky like me... And you know, people like happy endings.”

People Thinking Knows Writing Kind Book Voice Comedy Adults Intelligent Like Me Editors Happy Endings Quirky

Author:Elinor Lipman

“None of the editors I've worked with have ever asked me to pull my punches. They've never asked me to give them anything other than my own interpretation of events.”

Giving My Own Events Photography Interpretation Editors

Author:James Nachtwey

“If it were not for the fact that editors have become so timorous in these politically correct times, I would probably have a greater readership than I have.”

Ifs Facts Greater Editors Politically Correct Readership

Book:Oliphant's Anthem

Source: Oliphant's Anthem

“I've been leading newsrooms for a while now and it's been an honor serving as Editor in Chief of N.J., but I really think that my best shot at moving the needle in politics is by getting close to it - by reading, reporting, tweeting and writing.”

Thinking Writing Moving Reading Honor Shots Chiefs Serving Editors Needles Best Shot

Author:Ron Fournier

“Writers think in metaphors. Editors work in metaphors. A great reader reads in metaphors.”

Thinking Writing Reader Metaphor Editors

Author:Steven Pressfield

“So, this is my plea to all Western editors and producers: Display the Muhammad cartoon daily, until the Islamists become accustomed to the fact that we turn sacred cows into hamburger.”

Facts Turns Sacred Western Producers Editors Cows Display Cartoon Accustomed Muhammad Hamburgers Islamists Sacred Cows

Author:Daniel Pipes

“Movies are an editor's medium.”

Mediums Editors

Author:Stephen Root

“I had a great editor, Rebecca Corbett, from the time I was a city reporter right through to the years I worked on the 'Sun's' enterprise reporting team.”

Years Cities Sun Team Enterprise Editors Reporters Rebecca

Author:David Simon

“I guess if one set of my books was selling like Stephen King's, and the other wasn't selling at all, editors would want me to do the ones that sold like Stephen King's. But they seem to be willing to let me pick what I want to do next.”

Ifs Want Book Seems Next Literature Willing Kings Picks Let Me Selling Editors Want Me

Author:Fred Saberhagen

“I was a writer for 'New York' magazine. I had been to business school, but what did I know? Still, everybody from the receptionists on up to the editor would ask me what they should do with their money.”

Knows Should Stills School Asks New York Magazines Ask Me Editors Business School Receptionists

Author:Andrew Tobias

“I see music as an aid. It overcomes my internal editor, especially when the music evokes the character or the mood I'm trying to build.”

Trying Character Overcoming Aids Mood Internals Editors Evoke

Author:Jeff VanderMeer

“I wrote a query letter to an editor - a friend of a friend. The editor called me an idiot, told me never to contact an editor directly, and then recommended three literary agents he had worked with before. Laurie Fox was one of them, and I've never looked back.”

Three Letters Contact Agents Idiot Editors Foxes Queries Literary Agents

Author:Daniel H. Wilson

“There were all us baby boomers who had a grammar school education, started to learn, then went on the pill, the whole thing, and so there are today a lot more women writers, editors, producers, and so a lot more women's stories. God, the BBC's practically run by women.”

Whole Stories Running Today School Baby Producers Editors Grammar Pills School Education Boomers Baby Boomer Grammar School

Author:Julie Walters

“That's why editors and publishers will never be obsolete: a reader wants someone with taste and authority to point them in the direction of the good stuff, and to keep the awful stuff away from their door.”

Want Stuff Doors Reader Taste Authority Awful Editors Publishers Obsolete

Author:Walter Jon Williams

“Try to meet as many authors, agents, and editors as you can.”

Trying Agents Editors Newspaper Editors

Author:Walter Jon Williams

“We writers don't really think about whether what we write is good or not. It's too much to worry about. We just put the words down, trying to get them right, operating by some inner sense of pitch and proportion, and from time to time, we stick the stuff in an envelope and ship it to an editor.”

Thinking Writing Trying Stuff Worry Too Much Sticks Ships Proportion Editors Envelopes

Author:Garrison Keillor

“I've always been a writer, and in high school, I was the editor of my school newspaper and I got a writing scholarship. It's always been a passion of mine.”

Writing School Passion Mines High School Newspapers Editors Scholarship

Author:Zoe Lister-Jones

“I was the Playmate editor for Playboy for two years. I produced two years' worth of centerfolds. I did everything on that, from picking the girls to designing the sets to picking the wardrobe, coming up with themes, assigning the photographer, down to editing the photos and approving the retouching.”

Years Two Girl Design Photographer Theme Two Years Editors Editing Wardrobe Playboy Approving Retouching

Author:Holly Madison

“Back in my days as a children's book editor, my superiors caught on to the fact that teenagers were using the Internet to gossip about each other, and thought it might be nifty to develop a series of books about an anonymous high-school blogger who gossips about her classmates. The concept was passed on to me.”

Children Book Facts Might School Internet High School Concepts Series Caught Superiors Teenager Gossip Editors Children's Books Bloggers Classmates

Author:Cecily von Ziegesar

“I used to be an editor and I was editing young adult series. I didn't really like the books that I was reading, so I decided that I would write a book about something I'd want to read if I was 16. It turned into a Cinderella story... I developed a proposal and the characters of 'Gossip Girl' for my job.”

Ifs Want Writing Book Character Stories Jobs Young Used Girl Reading Adults Decided Series Young Adult Used To Be Gossip Editors Editing Proposal Gossip Girl Cinderella Story

Author:Cecily von Ziegesar

“My books have been translated into various languages and sold in other countries, but I never have any contact with the foreign publishers and am so disconnected from that process that it seems almost imaginary. With 'How to Save a Life', I worked closely with Usborne editors and have been involved in the publicity.”

Has Beens Book Country Seems Language Process Involved Various Contact Editors Imaginary Other Countries Publishers Publicity Disconnected Save A Life

Author:Sara Zarr

“Dare to be a sucky skateboarder or a lousy video editor or a completely crappy golfer. If we do only the stuff we’re good at, we never learn anything new.”

Ifs Stuff Dare Video Editors Golfers Skateboarder

Author:Justin Bieber

“Who are these bloggers? They're not trained editors at Vogue magazine. There are bloggers writing recipes that aren't tested that aren't necessarily very good, or are copies of what really good editors have created and done. Bloggers create a kind of a popularity but they are not the experts. We have to understand that.”

Writing Kind Done Very Good Magazines Experts Copies Editors Popularity Recipes Tested Vogue Bloggers Vogue Magazine

Author:Martha Stewart

“There is a phase in the life of every copy editor when she is obsessed with hyphens.”

Obsessed Copies Editors Phases Hyphens

Book:Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen

Source: Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen

“Letters to the editors of English and American newspapers often contain expressions of horror about the new terms that creep into the language, and these expressions are usually accompanied by dire predictions about ruination of the mother tongue.”

Mother Language Term Expression Horror Letters Tongue Newspapers Editors Predictions Creeps Mother Tongue

Book:Word Play: What Happens When People Talk

Source: Word Play: What Happens When People Talk

“I've seen people who stink, but the film editor shows them just where they didn't stink. But if you're empty and manipulative on stage, it's clear.”

People Ifs Shows Film Clear Stage Empty Editors Stink Manipulative

Author:D. B. Sweeney

“Usually I design the lighting and when I have the physical set there, I'm not good at going out loosely and saying, 'Do you what you want, give it to the editor, and he'll figure it out.' I physically then walk on with the actors and I say, 'Let's walk until you guys feel the space works for you, and tell me when all that happens.”

Want Giving Feels Happens Guy Actors Space Walks Figures Design What You Want Editors Going Out Lighting

Author:Tarsem Singh

“I worked at my high school newspaper at Andover, which came out weekly, unusual for a high school paper. Then my first day at Penn I went right to the 'Daily Pennsylvanian' and pretty much spent most of my college career working both as the sports editor and then editor of the editorial page.”

Firsts School Sports Careers College Paper Pages High School Newspapers Editors Unusual Editorials

Author:Buzz Bissinger

“You should never rely on interviews with musicians as being factual. Most of them are mangled and even have made up stuff in them, that is to say, made up stuff by the writer or editor.”

Should Made Stuff Musician Rely Interviews Editors Factual

Author:Black Francis

“I'm totally against the idea of a celebrity editor.”

Ideas Editors

Author:David Zinczenko

“PERFECTION, n. An imaginary state of quality distinguished from the actual by an element known as excellence; an attribute of the critic. The editor of an English magazine having received a letter pointing out the erroneous nature of his views and style, and signed "Perfection," promptly wrote at the foot of the letter: "I don't agree with you," and mailed it to Matthew Arnold.”

States Views Quality Known Feet Style Elements Perfection Letters Agree Excellence Critics Magazines Editors Attributes Imaginary Pointing Distinguished Matthew

Book:The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary

Source: The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary

“Every editor of newspapers pays tribute to the devil.”

Pay Devil Newspapers Editors Tribute

Author:Jean de La Fontaine

“Great is journalism. Is not every able editor a ruler of the world, being the persuader of it?”

World Able Journalism Editors Rulers

Book:The French Revolution: The Historian

Source: The French Revolution: The Historian

“A Fourth Estate, of Able Editors, springs up.”

Able Spring Journalism Editors Fourth Estates

Book:The French Revolution: a History

Source: The French Revolution: a History

“When I was in college, I was the editor of the literary magazine and insisted neither the editors nor the writers be specifically identified-only our student numbers appeared on the title page. I love that idea and still do.”

Stills Ideas Numbers Students College Pages Magazines Titles Editors

Author:Jonathan Carroll

“Regan has been amused, in the intervening years, to watch editors who rolled their eyes at Limbaugh scramble to try to duplicate his success. What people respond to in this culture is loud and brash and pointed and sometimes vulgar -- that`s what gets p... Judith Regan.”

People Trying Years Has Beens Sometimes Eye Culture Watches Loud Editors Vulgar Amusement Amused Duplicate Intervening Brash Regan

Author:Judith Regan

“I tend to write things seven times before I show them to my editor. I write them seven times, then I take them on tour, read them like a dozen times on tour, then go back to the room and rewrite, read and rewrite... I would never show him a first draft, because then he's really going to be sick of it by the twelfth draft.”

Writing Firsts Shows Rooms Sick Seven Editors Dozen Editing

Author:David Sedaris

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Editors Quotes