Revising Quotes

• Never think of revising as fixing something that is wrong. That starts you off in a negative frame of mind. Rather think of it as an opportunity to improve something you already love.

  Marion Dane Bauer

  Opportunity, Thinking, Mind

  Marion Dane Bauer (1996). “Our Stories: A Fiction Workshop for Young Authors”, p.165, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• I like revising much, much better than getting down a first draft. The first draft is just getting the pieces to the puzzle. Then I get to put the puzzle together!

  Judy Blume

  Together, Pieces, Firsts

  Interview with Kendra Ralston, www.nypl.org. November 19, 2002.

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• Rewrite and revise. Do not be afraid to seize what you have and cut it to ribbons ... Good writing means good revising.

  William Strunk, Jr.

  Writing, Learning, Mean

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• The smartest people are constantly revising their understanding, reconsidering a problem they thought they’d already solved. They’re open to new points of view, new information, new ideas, contradictions, and challenges to their own way of thinking.

  Jeff Bezos

  Thinking, Ideas, Views

  "Some advice from Jeff Bezos" by Jason Fried, signalvnoise.com. October 19, 2012.

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• Our past is a novel that we are constantly revising.

  Eric G. Wilson

  Past, Novel, Our Past

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• I probably spend 90% of my time revising what I've written.

  Joyce Carol Oates

  My Time, Written

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• Most writers want to share their essay or book much too quickly. Those who accept the pain of hard work and revising are those who get published.

  Lee Gutkind

  Pain, Book, Hard Work

  Source: speechwriting-ghostwriting.typepad.com

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• I love revising things, because you see how you can get the language to get closer to intention. You know there are three ways to say X thing, but one will say it better than the other two. And in saying it better, it gets you closer to something.

  Claudia Rankine

  Two, Three, Way

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

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• I think the hardest part of writing is revising. And by that I mean the following: A novelist has to create the piece of marble and then chip away to find the figure in it.

  Chaim Potok

  Writing, Mean, Thinking

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• If things are going well I can easily spend twelve hours a day writing, but not writing writing, just thinking and revising and taking a comma out and putting it back in.

  Francine Prose

  Writing, Thinking, Twelve

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• I love revising. If you demystify the process, it comes down to four strategies: what can I do to make the draft better; what should I cut out to make it stronger; what do I need to do to clarify it; and finally, what should I reposition.

  Wally Lamb

  Cutting, Stronger, Needs

  Source: rssfeeds.usatoday.com

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• I love the students - they are remarkable, inspiring people. I would miss teaching if I stopped doing it. The kind of work I do is pretty diverse: I can cast a play while doing a polish of a screenplay, while thinking about a new play and revising another. In other words, the kind of work that I do during my work day is not just writing, yet it is all part of the job of being a playwright.

  Donald Margulies

  Jobs, Teaching, Writing

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• When your story is ready for rewrite, cut it to the bone. Get rid of every ounce of excess fat. This is going to hurt; revising a story down to the bare essentials is always a little like murdering children, but it must be done.

  Stephen King

  Hurt, Children, Writing

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• When someone disagrees with me, I do not have to immediately start revising what I just said. People don't want me to always agree with them. They can sense this is phony. They can sense I am trying to control them: I am agreeing with them to make them like me. They feel; "I don't want to exist to like you. I DON'T exist to like you."

  Hugh Prather

  People, Justice, Trying

  Hugh Prather (2009). “Notes to Myself: My Struggle to Become a Person”, p.105, Bantam

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• Writing a first draft is like groping one's way into a dark room, or overhearing a faint conversation, or telling a joke whose punchline you've forgotten. As someone said, one writes mainly to rewrite, for rewriting and revising are how one's mind comes to inhabit the material fully.

  Ted Solotaroff

  Writing, Dark, Mind

  Ted Solotaroff (2008). “The Literary Community: Selected Essays : 1967-2007”

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• Categorizing is necessary for humans, but it becomes pathological when the category is seen as definitive, preventing people from considering the fuzziness of boundaries, let alone revising their categories.

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb

  People, Boundaries, Categories

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb (2010). “The Black Swan: Second Edition: The Impact of the Highly Improbable Fragility"”, p.15, Random House

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• The voice of a person thinking, discovering, revising, is ever-present without any loss in grace or ease.

  Susan Stewart

  Loss, Thinking, Voice

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• I do so much revising as I go along; I wonder how I could write books if I hadn't grown up in the computer age. I think I'd be a very different writer. I find myself cutting and pasting, changing things around and deleting whole paragraphs constantly.

  Megan McCafferty

  Book, Writing, Cutting

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• One great aim of revision is to cut out. In the exuberance of composition it is natural to throw in - as one does in speaking - a number of small words that add nothing to meaning but keep up the flow and rhythm of thought. In writing, not only does this surplusage not add to meaning, it subtracts from it. Read and revise, reread and revise, keeping reading and revising until your text seems adequate to your thought.

  Jacques Barzun

  Reading, Writing, Cutting

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• Once I start writing, I am a huge reviser. To me writing is revising. I probably turn over every sentence that I write, to see if I have the rhythm right. That's why my first drafts take a really long time.

  Matt de la Pena

  Writing, Long, Firsts

  Source: therumpus.net

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• I love having written. Sometimes I love writing. I love to revise. Revising is my favorite part of writing.

  Gail Carson Levine

  Writing, Sometimes, My Favorite

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• Unfortunately, throughout the housing crisis we've seen innocent homeowners who have been victims of shady mortgage lenders and unscrupulous individuals who have used a down market to line their own pockets at the expense of others. This bill is designed to send a message by revising our laws to ensure criminals are brought to justice and that law enforcement has the tools to uncover these fraudulent schemes and go after the bad actors. Criminals should be put on notice that ripping off homeowners and taxpayers won't be tolerated.

  Chuck Grassley

  Law, Justice, Enforcement

  "Congress Targets Mortgage Fraud: Justice for Victims, Jail for the Guilty". Tri-State Defender, February 12, 2009.

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• One could go on revising a prose page forever whereas there is a point in a poem when one knows it is done forever.

  May Sarton

  Forever, Done, Goes On

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• I once had an editor advise me, as I was revising one of my early novels, to add more characters. I played around with the idea. As soon as I'd decided a few fresh faces and give them something to do, I realized that what my editor had really asked for was more plot. Ding. More characters equals more action.

  Elizabeth Sims

  Writing, Character, Ideas

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• I'm constantly revising. Once the book is written and typed, I go through the entire draft again.

  Chaim Potok

  Book, Written

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