Revising Quotes - Page 2

• One must keep one's character. Earn a character first if you can, and if you can't, then assume one. From the code of morals I have been following and revising and revising for 72 years I remember one detail. All my life I have been honest - comparatively honest. I could never use money I had not made honestly - I could only lend it.

  Mark Twain

  Character, Years, Atheism

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• I keep an elaborate calendar for my characters detailing on which dates everything happens. Im constantly revising this as I go along. It gives me the freedom to intricately plot my story, knowing it will at least hold up on a timeline.

  Maria Semple

  Character, Knowing, Giving

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• Biot, who assisted Laplace in revising it [The Mécanique Céleste] for the press, says that Laplace himself was frequently unable to recover the details in the chain of reasoning, and if satisfied that the conclusions were correct, he was content to insert the constantly recurring formula, 'Il est àisé a voir' [it is easy to see].

  W. W. Rouse Ball

  Science, Details, Easy

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• I write quickly with a sense of urgency. I don't edit myself out of existence, meaning I'll try to write 50 or 60 pages before I start rereading, revising and editing. That just helps with my confidence.

  Anthony Bourdain

  Writing, Editing, Trying

  "Anthony Bourdain The ‘Parts Unknown’ Interview". Interview with Kam Williams, newsblaze.com. January 9, 2015.

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• Men have jobs, while women have Roles: Mother, Wife, Goddess, Temptress, etc. That's probably why it's so hard for women to rewrite the rules. You're not just changing a job description, but an ancient myth. You're revising the Bible, Poetry, Legend and Psychoanalytic Scripture.

  Caryl Rivers

  Mother, Jobs, Men

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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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• It seems the deeper, truer personality of the artist only emerges in the making of decisions... in refusing and accepting, changing and revising.

  Bridget Riley

  Artist, Choices, Personality

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• I think I regard any history in quotes, because just like science, we're constantly revising science, we're constantly revising history.

  David S. Goyer

  Thinking, Regard

  Source: collider.com

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• Revising a screenplay is much more frustrating than revising a song because you have to read through the entire work again while you are changing stuff. It is a lot easier to edit a song.

  Kelly Jones

  Song, Stuff, Easier

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• Sometimes I can spend as long revising a manuscript as I spent writing it in the first place.

  Margaret Haddix

  Writing, Long, Firsts

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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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• 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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• Bryce Zabel and I went down the road of revising the Kennedy historical record together on the NBC seriesDark Skies. This time instead of giving new meaning to the established JFK chronology, hes created a brand new one altogether.Surrounded by Enemiesis an exhilarating ride, full of twists and turns that never were, but surely could have been.

  Melissa Rosenberg

  Nbc, Sky, Giving

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• The writer must have a good imagination to begin with, but the imagination has to be muscular, which means it must be exercised in a disciplined way, day in and day out, by writing, failing, succeeding and revising.

  Stephen King

  Writing, Mean, Imagination

  "Writing Advice from Stephen King & Jerry Jenkins". Interview with Jessica Strawser, www.writersdigest.com. July 21, 2009.

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• I believe Jack Smith might have written THE BOOK on writing and revising for publication. Clean, direct, succinct--a book that is full of pure wisdom and truth, but also amazing technical advice.

  Virgil Suarez

  Believe, Book, Writing

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• Nothing quite has reality for me till I write it all down--revising and embellishing as I go. I'm always waiting for things to be over so I can get home and commit them to paper.

  Erica Jong

  Home, Writing, Reality

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• If the book is finished—published and on the shelf—I do not think of revising it. But if I'm not finished psychologically with characters, they will recur, either as themselves or as new, slightly altered manifestations, and their same issues will reappear. It's a matter of the subject and emotional investment and my own obsessive thinking about various issues It's an unconscious process. To say that a single story is not done isn't quite true. A story can be finished and judged successful or not by somebody else, but if the issue is not done for me, I can count on its reappearance.

  Antonya Nelson

  Book, Character, Successful

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• Most philosophies wrap their seekers in a strict belief system. By virtue of what they include, they exclude everything else, especially some vital realizations. Periodically revising our philosophy of life as we live it is, therefore, a critically valuable exercise.

  Charles Bates

  Philosophy, Exercise, Realization

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• I do a lot of revising. Certain chapters six or seven times. Occasionally you can hit it right the first time. More often, you don't.

  John Dos Passos

  Writing, Firsts, Six

  John Dos Passos (1988). “John Dos Passos: the major nonfictional prose”

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• I always rewrite the very beginning of a novel. I rewrite the beginning as I write the ending, so I may spend part of morning writing the ending, the last 100 pages approximately, and then part of the morning revising the beginning. So the style of the novel has a consistency.

  Joyce Carol Oates

  Morning, Writing, Consistency

  "Off the Page: Joyce Carol Oates". The WashingtonPost Interview, www.washingtonpost.com. October 24, 2003.

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• I have always had a hard time revising my work as a journalist, which was never much of a problem. You always have editors as backstops. Their job is to perfect your story. Most of them want to be useful.

  Jon Weisman

  Jobs, Hard Times, Editors

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

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• I revise like crazy. I start revising before the pen hits the paper.

  John Dufresne

  Crazy, Paper, Pens

  Source: therumpus.net

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• I'm constantly revising and updating a piece until it's finally recorded. Once it's recorded, then it's over.

  Glenn Branca

  Pieces

  Source: pitchfork.com

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• I don't think you think of your audience as much as you think, when you're revising, how it holds together. I mean I think the first draft is art, and the second draft, third, fourth draft is craft. Putting it together so that it has a good pattern.

  Carolyn See

  Art, Mean, Thinking

  Source: www.psychologytoday.com

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• In a story, for example, you'll start off with a character who is a little bit of a cartoon. That's not satisfying and you start revising. And as you revise you always are making it better by being specific and by observing more closely, which actually is really the same as saying you love your characters. The close observation equals love of them.

  George Saunders

  Love You, Character, Cartoon

  "In Search For Answers, Author George Saunders Covers Trump Campaign". "Weekend Edition Saturday" with Lynn Neary, www.npr.org. July 9, 2016.

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