Best Rewriting Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings Page 2

“You let the story cool off and then, instead of rewriting it, you relive it.”

“I don't impose any word count or number-of-hours quota on myself, or have any rules, except one: persistence. Nothing glamorous. No epiphanies. Just revisiting and rewriting. For me, momentum is far more important than inspiration.”

Important Inspiration Hours Numbers Persistence Momentum Glamorous Epiphany Rewriting Quota

Author:Pam Muñoz Ryan

“Once you start rewriting, you're not able to stop. With each draft the fundamental banality and worthlessness of the material becomes more evident even as its vitality and spontaneity are drained from it.”

Able Materials Fundamentals Evident Vitality Spontaneity Rewriting Drained Banality Worthlessness

Author:Barry N. Malzberg

“I get ill when I'm writing because I'm so focused on it, and it can take a year or two. Often, I knock out the first draft very quickly. I can do it in five to six weeks. Then, it takes a year of rewriting it and rewriting it.”

Writing Years Firsts I Can Two Can Do Five Week Six Ill Focused I Can Do It Rewriting

Author:Eran Creevy

“We are redefining terms and rewriting laws and removing fences everywhere you turn, and we seem to think we can do that with impunity.”

Thinking Seems Law Turns Term Can Do Fence Impunity Rewriting Redefining

Author:Ravi Zacharias

“Should we be rewriting history just to make people feel good? That's not history, that's psychiatry.”

People Feels Should Feel Good Psychiatry Rewriting Rewriting History

Book:Ed Koch on Everything: Movies, Politics, Personalities, Food and Other Stuff

Source: Ed Koch on Everything: Movies, Politics, Personalities, Food and Other Stuff

“More than a half, maybe as much as two-thirds of my life as a writer is rewriting. I wouldn't say I have a talent that's special. It strikes me that I have an unusual kind of stamina.”

Kind Two Half Special Talent Thirds Strikes Unusual Stamina Rewriting

Author:John Irving

“Rather than rewriting the law under the pretense of interpreting it, the Court should have left it to Congress to decide what to do about the Act's limitation of tax credits to state Exchanges.”

Should States Law Left Taxes Should Have Court Congress Credit Limitation Pretense Interpreting Rewriting

Book:Scalia's Court: A Legacy of Landmark Opinions and Dissents

Source: Scalia's Court: A Legacy of Landmark Opinions and Dissents

“Writing is rewriting what you have rewritten.”

Writing Rewriting

Author:Paul Engle

“Nobody told all the new e-mail writers that the essence of writing is rewriting. Just because they are writing with ease and enjoyment doesn't mean they are writing well.”

Writing Wells Mean Essence Ease Enjoyment Mail Rewriting Writing Well

Author:William Zinsser

“Writing and rewriting are the same thing to me. I don't believe what Allen Ginsberg said that "first thought, then - " I just don't believe that.”

Writing Firsts Believe Said Don't Believe Rewriting Ginsberg

Author:Lynne Tillman

“Another trick in software is to avoid rewriting the software by using a piece that's already been written, so called component approach which the latest term for this in the most advanced form is what's called Object Oriented Programming.”

Form Term Pieces Written Objects Approach Tricks Programming Software Components Rewriting

Author:Bill Gates

“I feel the most natural thing is for music to come that way because it's sort of like poetry. Though I do think with poets that I like, like Charles Olson or Ezra Pound, they were rewriting constantly, until the poem becomes a diamond.But with music I don't really feel that way.”

Thinking Way Feels Natural Poet Pounds Diamond Rewriting Natural Things

Author:Stephen Malkmus

“I think I was also afraid of the novel. I write line by line, proceeding at snail's pace, rewriting as I go and paring the excess away. This is against all the best advice for writing long form prose, and I have tried over the years to break myself of the habit, but I can't bear to leave anything ungainly on the page and half the fun for me is that tinkering. So the length of a novel was a daunting prospect.”

Thinking Writing Years Long I Can Form Fun Lines Half Break Novel Advice Bears Habit Pages Prose Length Pace Excess Proceeding Best Advice All The Best Rewriting Snail Tinkering

Author:Debra Dean

“Perhaps adding a line or two of dialogue to try to better capture an emotion. But I've found that if the story isn't there in the beginning, right from the start, I generally can't beat it into shape no matter how much rewriting I do.”

Ifs Trying Two Matter Stories Found Lines Emotion Shapes Beats Dialogue Capture Rewriting

Author:Mary J. Miller

“Making all of those words work together is difficult. It took a lot of cleaning up, a lot of rewriting scenes in order to make them more vivid. I used everything - every oddity I've ever seen on the side of the road, every interesting memory I could make relevant.”

Together Used Order Difficult Sides Memories Interesting Scene Working Together Relevant Cleaning Very Interesting Vivid Rewriting Cleaning Up Oddities

Author:Mary J. Miller

“Read over your compositions and whenever you meet with a passage which you think is particularly fine, strike it out.”

Thinking Writing Art Fine Entertainment Strikes Editors Passages Composition Great Writing Rewriting Art Of Writing Editing And Writing

Author:Samuel Johnson

“Rewriting the negative beliefs you have learned is the essence of becoming the director of your life.”

Belief Self Esteem Becoming Directors Negative Essence Esteem Rewriting Negative Beliefs

Author:Deborah Day

“The president is supposed to execute faithfully the laws that the legislature has written. So, the executive orders that Barack Obama president is writing are without precedent. Without precedent so with he's rewriting law. It's totally illegal.”

Writing Law Order President Written Barack Executives Illegal Legislature Precedent Rewriting Executive Orders

Author:Rafael Cruz

“You couldn't hope to make a drama and have people rewriting on the day and having the actors making suggestions, "Wouldn't it be funny if my character did this?" "No. You're the actor. I'll tell you what to do."”

People Ifs Character Actors Drama Suggestions Rewriting

Author:Declan Lowney

“Some of our earliest codes of ethics in the so-called Western World are little more than a rewriting of the Ten Commandments. Eastern legal constructions likewise arise out of the earliest spiritual traditions and understandings.”

World Littles Spiritual Understanding Ten Ethics Tradition Western Arise Code Construction Commandments Eastern Western World Ten Commandments Rewriting Code Of Ethics

Author:Neale Donald Walsch

“I realized, in removing or rewriting these jokes, that often the jokes weren't done or that I was using, for me, the curse words as kind of a crutch. So then I just started writing.”

Writing Kind Done Jokes I Realized Curse Crutches Rewriting Curse Words

Author:Jim Gaffigan

“That rewriting of literary history is most obvious in the case of The Yage Letters, where I was able to show that the true history inverts the official one.”

Shows Able Cases Letters Obvious Officials Rewriting Invert

Author:Oliver Harris

“I still write with pen and paper and have someone type it on a computer. But rewriting I do by hand.”

Writing Stills Hands Type Paper Computer Pens Rewriting

Author:Natalie Goldberg

“The only thing I might have noticed [and this is pretty anecdotal] is that there is some tendency to need to be taught that 'writing is rewriting' - maybe more of a sense than was pervasive 10 years ago that the first or second pass of a story is sufficient. That is an idea that is easily dislodged, but I suspect it might have something to do with the turnaround time re: blogging and so on - this sense that there is some essential truth about a first draft that one runs the risk of "ruining" by coming back to it.”

Needs Writing Years Firsts Ideas Stories Might Running Risk Taught Essentials Years Ago Tendencies Sufficient Suspects Coming Back Blogging Rewriting Turnaround

Author:George Saunders

“Donald Trump has been rewriting the rules since he got into politics.”

Has Beens Trump Rewriting

Author:Christopher Michael Cillizza

“The rewriting is always crucial to what I do; whenever I do a scene, I always tell myself that this isn't final and that I can do it again, better. The pacing is probably from experience. I've always liked gradual disclosure. I keep thinking of my rubber-band theory. You have a rubber band that you keep pulling and pulling and pulling, and just at the moment of snapping you release it and start another chapter and start pulling again.”

Thinking I Can Moments Can Do Theory Scene Band Finals Release Crucial Chapters Pulling I Can Do It Rubber Disclosure Rewriting Pacing Snapping Rubber Bands

Author:Robert Cormier

“Living here in California, I think one of the scariest things about California is the fact that it is rewriting its script and changing constantly and so many people don't know who they will be and who they will be with a year from now.”

People Thinking Knows Years Facts Scripts California Rewriting

Author:Pico Iyer

“I'm interested in the moments where the audience is restless. I'm interested in the moments where they lean in and become incredibly engaged: the laughter, the silence. All of that is part of how I think about shaping and rewriting the play.”

Thinking Play Moments Silence Audience Laughter Engaged Restless Rewriting

Author:Lynn Nottage

“On the one occasion where I did try writing a screenplay, I found the rewriting just unendurable.”

Writing Trying Found Occasions Screenplays Rewriting Unendurable

Author:Alan Moore

“'A Fair Maiden' existed in notes and sketches for perhaps a year. When I traveled, I would take along with me my folder of notes - 'ideas for stories.' Eventually, I began to write it and wrote it fairly swiftly - in perhaps two months of fairly intense writing and rewriting. Most of my time writing is really re-writing.”

Writing Years Two Ideas Stories Months Fairs Notes Intense My Time Traveled Maidens Two Months Rewriting Folders Maiden Names

Author:Joyce Carol Oates

“In my office in Florida I have, I think, 30 manuscript piles around the room. Some are screenplays or comic books or graphic novels. Some are almost done. Some I'm rewriting. If I'm working with a co-writer, they'll usually write the first draft. And then I write subsequent drafts.”

Ifs Thinking Writing Firsts Book Done Rooms Novel Office Comic Florida Comic Book Graphic Screenplays Manuscripts Rewriting Graphic Novels Almost Done

Author:James Patterson

“Almost all the producers I know and dig, like Quincy Jones or Brian Eno, are really musicians first. I'm a composer, an orchestrator, an arranger and a musician first. I know how to write and rewrite songs, and the genius is really in the rewriting.”

Knows Writing Firsts Song Know How Genius Musician Producers Composer Brian Rewriting

Author:Nile Rodgers

“The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.”

Source: Mark Twain on Common Sense: Timeless Advice and Words of Wisdom from America's Most-Revered Humorist

“There is a difference between a book of two hundred pages from the very beginning, and a book of two hundred pages which is the result of an original eight hundred pages. The six hundred are there. Only you don't see them.”

Writing Two Book Literature Differences Results Six Pages Hundred Originals Eight Editing Rewriting

Book:Elie Wiesel: Conversations

Source: Elie Wiesel: Conversations

“We're the new power, come to replace the old. Cameras in the head, children with microchips, spin doctors rewriting reality as it happens.”

Children Reality Happens Doctors Cameras Rewriting Spin Doctors Microchips

Author:Grant Morrison

“Life is like a typographical error: we're constantly writing and rewriting things over each other.”

Writing Life Is Errors Life Is Like Rewriting

Book:The Rules of Attraction

Source: The Rules of Attraction

“The cultivated person's first duty is to be always prepared to rewrite the encyclopedia.”

People Firsts Persons Knowledge Duty Intelligent Prepared Intelligence Civilized Civility Cultivation Cultivating Preparedness Rewriting Encyclopedia

Book:Serendipities: Language and Lunacy

Source: Serendipities: Language and Lunacy

“The elevator shaft was a kind of heat sink. Hot food was cold by the time it arrived. Cold food got colder. No one knew what would happen to ice cream, but it would probably involve some rewriting of the laws of thermodynamics.”

Kind Happens Law Cold Hot Ice Heat Cream Ice Cream Elevators Rewriting Thermodynamics

Book:Lords And Ladies: (Discworld Novel 14)

Source: Lords And Ladies: (Discworld Novel 14)

“No matter how great a writer, artist, or entrepreneur, he is a mortal, he is fallible. He is not proof against Resistance. He will drop the ball; he will crash. That’s why they call it rewriting.”

Matter Artist Work Balls Entrepreneur Proof Resistance Mortals Crash Rewriting

Book:Do the Work!: Overcome Resistance and get ouf of your own way

Source: Do the Work!: Overcome Resistance and get ouf of your own way

“Heinlein's Rules for Writers Rule One: You Must Write Rule Two: Finish What Your Start Rule Three: You Must Refrain From Rewriting, Except to Editorial Order Rule Four: You Must Put Your Story on the Market Rule Five: You Must Keep it on the Market until it has Sold”

Writing Two Stories Order Three Five Four Refrain Editorials Rewriting

Author:Robert A. Heinlein

“The best writing is rewriting.”

Writing Learning Programming Rewriting

Author:E. B. White

“We’re constantly changing facts, rewriting history to make things easier, to make them fit in with our preferred version of events. We do it automatically. We invent memories. Without thinking. If we tell ourselves something happened often enough we start to believe it, and then we can actually remember it.”

Ifs Thinking Believe Enough Facts Remember Memories Happened Events Fit Easier Versions Rewriting Rewriting History

Author:S.J. Watson

“...but I could not sleep without proper covering and spent the rest of the night rewriting lost arguments from my past, altering history so that I emerged victorious.”

Past Night Lost Sleep Argument Covering My Past Rewriting

Book:The Sisters Brothers

Source: The Sisters Brothers

“Having got into bed and turned out the light, I quietly burst into tears because I am not a good person. As they came and went for some minutes, I was concerned with the words following 'because' in the previous sentence, rewriting them over and over in my head until they seemed to be as close to the truth as it was possible for me to make them.”

Persons Light Minutes Tears Bed Concerned Following Sentences Good Person Rewriting

Author:Edward Gorey

“Fiction does not spring into the world fully grown, like Athena. It is the process of writing and rewriting that makes a fiction original, if not profound.”

Ifs World Writing Doe Inspiration Process Fiction Spring Originals Profound Rewriting Athena

Author:John Gardner

“I can’t write five words but that I change seven.”

Writing I Can Five Seven Great Writers Writers And Writing Revision Writing By Writers Great Writing Rewriting Art Of Writing Writing From Famous Authors Great Author

Book:Not Much Fun: The Lost Poems of Dorothy Parker

Source: Not Much Fun: The Lost Poems of Dorothy Parker

“I believe more in the scissors than I do in the pencil.”

Writing Believe I Believe Written Crafts Editing Pencils Great Writers Writers And Writing Revision Great Writing Rewriting Scissors Art Of Writing Written Language Writing From Famous Authors Editing And Writing

Book:Conversations with Capote

Source: Conversations with Capote

“I have rewritten — often several times — every word I have ever published. My pencils outlast their erasers.”

Writing Pencils Revision Great Writing Rewriting Erasers Art Of Writing

Book:Strong opinions

Source: Strong opinions

“I will write in words of fire. I will write them on your skin. I will write about desire. Write beginnings, write of sin. You’re the book I love the best, your skin only holds my truth, you will be a palimpsest lines of age rewriting youth. You will not burn upon the pyre. Or be buried on the shelf. You’re my letter to desire: And you’ll never read yourself. I will trace each word and comma As the final dusk descends, You’re my tale of dreams and drama, Let us find out how it ends.”

Writing Book Ends Dream Age Desire Lines Sin Fire Youth Drama Letters Skins Finals Tales Buried Shelves Dusk Rewriting My Truth Palimpsest

Author:Neil Gaiman

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Rewriting Quotes