Editors Quotes - Page 13

• I never had a plan, except to write. I love what I do, and have from the beginning. Loving what you do makes it a lot easier to work, every day, to face the tough spots and heel in for the long haul. Nothing against plans; they work for some people. But for me, if I'd been planning, worrying about numbers, trying to micro-manage my career, I wouldn't have focused on the writing. If you don't write, you're not read. If you're not read, you don't sell. So that's my Master Plan, I guess. Write the books, let the agent agent, the editor edit, the publisher publish.

  Nora Roberts

  Book, Writing, Loving What You Do

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• I had an idea for a medical conspiracy thriller. Since it was non-horror, I didn't want the publishers and editors bringing a lot of baggage - my history as a genre writer in the SF and horror fields, for instance - to the novel when they read it. I wanted them to consider the book solely on its own merits. So I called myself Colin Andrews. I was tired of seeing my books at floor level. Not that Herman Wouk and Phyllis Whitney and William Wharton are bad company, but I wanted to be up at eye level for a change, where people with bad backs could get a chance to see my books.

  F. Paul Wilson

  Book, Eye, Tired

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• To be a good editor or a good writer, I think you really need to be a great reader first.

  Karen Thompson Walker

  Thinking, Needs, Firsts

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• 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.

  Nicholas Sparks

  Believe, Character, Editing

  "Nicholas Sparks, Author of 'Nights in Rodanthe' and 'The Notebook'". Live Q&As, www.washingtonpost.com. September 17, 2008.

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• I don't tend to redraft, I will try to tidy it up, but basically I feel what I write down first has got the impetus, it may be clumsy, it may be repetitive, but a good editor can take that out. That first writing bit is the best thing you will do.

  Gerald Seymour

  Writing, Trying, May

  Source: www.theguardian.com

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• First of all I have to ask myself what am I trying to say and who am I trying to tell the story to. So if it's just 300 words going in the Independent it's very much where, what, who and when - fantastic. If there's a little bit more scope, if I've been given 1500 words by the sports editor, and I can have a little bit of fun, then I need to maybe entertain, include some different stuff.

  Steve Bunce

  Sports, Fun, Independent

  Source: www.bbc.co.uk

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• For my second novel, The Apothecary's Daughter, my editor encouraged me to think of another unusual profession for a woman to have. That led to the main character, Lilly Haswell, who finds herself doing the work of an apothecary at a time when it was illegal for women to do so.

  Julie Klassen

  Daughter, Character, Thinking

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• I have wanted to write from a young age, but working with so many gifted authors and editors over the years has taught me so much. I doubt I would be where I am today without that amazing experience.

  Julie Klassen

  Writing, Years, Doubt

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• Who should regulate the media? Who should control the press? The commentariat agonises, as if the choice was between state control through some autocratic press law or a new Press Complaints Commission redecorated with false teeth. But there is another way. Let journalists regulate themselves.... Let's have a little democracy in the media. Even in the Murdoch papers, the number of journalists who are irretrievably lawless and callous is quite small. Most of the disasters at the News of the World happened because its editors treated their staff in the style of Muammar Gaddafi.

  Neal Ascherson

  Numbers, Media, Law

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• Onstage I'm the one in control - I'm not at the mercy of how an editor chooses to put the scene together later. I can do things onstage that I would never do in real life. It's very freeing.

  Laurie Metcalf

  Real, Together, Mercy

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• That's also part of having great editors -- they can sort of be honest with you and say, "I see where you're headed with this, but I don't think it's there yet. Dig deeper, babe, and come back with something more." And that's what you do, you dig waaaaaaaay down and you walk around the block eight million times and then you have it -- shazam! And it all comes together in something soooo much better than you thought you were capable of.

  Victoria Laurie

  Block, Writing, Thinking

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• As editor of the largest newspaper in West Virginia, I scan hundreds of reports daily . . . and I am amazed by the frequency with which religion causes people to kill each other. It is a nearly universal pattern, undercutting the common assumption that religion makes people kind and tolerant.

  James A. Haught

  Hate, Virginia, People

  James A. Haught (1995). “Holy Hatred: Religious Conflicts of the '90s”

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• My role as the chair of the fashion department at Parsons put me face to face with all the big designers, retailers, and editors. Since I was moving in these new circles regularly, I realized I needed to do something about my own personal style. It was really Diane von Furstenberg who gave me the nudge.

  Tim Gunn

  Fashion, Moving, Circles

  "Project Runway’s Top Gunn". Interview with Elizabeth Gettelman, www.motherjones.com. January/February, 2012.

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• If a good editor will let me tell my story with the right artist, I'm happy.

  Brian K. Vaughan

  Artist, Stories, Let Me

  "AICN COMICS!! @$$Holes Interview With Brian K. Vaughan!!". Ain't It Cool interview, www.aintitcool.com. June 22, 2004.

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• The aim of the scholarly editor is not to produce the the easiest text for the reader, but to get as near as he can to the text of the author.

  Frederic G. Kenyon

  Produce, Aim, Scholarly

  "The Story Of The Bible" by Frederic G. Kenyon. Ch. X, The Position Today, p. 142, 1949.

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• Book publishing was never a heaven "run by editors", and it is by no means today a hell "run by accountants." If our "sole interest" was "instant profit," not only would we never do any number of the things we actually do every day, we probably wouldn't be in book publishing at all.

  Patrick Nielsen Hayden

  Running, Book, Mean

  "A simple, mildly incredulous philippic". nielsenhayden.com. April 7, 2010.

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• The image isn't just created with the camera. That's just part one. The editor gets an imprint. The colorist does something to it. Visual effects does something to it. It's not just what you capture that people are going to see. The image gets made in many ways. In production and then in post.

  Christopher Kenneally

  People, Cameras, Doe

  Source: blogs.indiewire.com

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• The initial spark usually has something to do with panic -- I'm due to turn in a story to a workshop or an editor. It's a terrible working method.

  Kelly Link

  Panic, Sparks, Stories

  "Kelly Link, Words by Flashlight". Interview with Lauren McLaughlin, www.sensesfive.com. June 7, 2006.

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• Show me a contented newspaper editor and I will show you a bad newspaper.

  Arthur Christiansen

  Newspapers, Show Me, Shows

  1961 Headlines all my Life, ch.15.

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• Having been an editor for more than a decade, I thought I had a good idea of how much work was involved in writing a novel. I was wrong! Writing is a lot harder than I ever imagined - but worth it.

  Julie Klassen

  Writing, Ideas, Novel

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• Being an editor has been a source of great satisfaction, but writing is the thing I truly love.

  Bill Keller

  Writing, Satisfaction, Source

  Interview with Scott Raab, www.esquire.com. June 8, 2011.

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• I read The Vegetarian and fell in love with it. A year later, I was invited to go and speak at the London Book Fair (which I'd never even heard of before), as they were gearing up for Korea being the market focus country in 2014. I met Max Porter there, Kang's editor at Portobello, sent him my sample, and the rest is history.

  Deborah Smith

  Country, Book, Korea

  Source: thequietus.com

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• When it is my editor telling me how to rewrite a story, I listen and do what she asks because I have learned that I get a better book in the end. I can't say I'm happy when I read that editorial letter. It is always a little painful and scary. But I have learned that - bit by bit - I can make the changes and do the work.

  Kate DiCamillo

  Book, Scary, Stories

  Source: blog.booksamillion.com

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• The funny thing is, when I've gone through the relentless editing process, my editor and I are amazed the Mercy Watson books still make us laugh. The same jokes that made us laugh the first time around still make us laugh in the 16th rendition.

  Kate DiCamillo

  Book, Editing, Funny Things

  Source: www.teachingbooks.net

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• The draft that finally goes to my editor doesn't get into her hands until I have read it out loud innumerable times - sometimes into a tape recorder - to make sure that it sounds right.

  Kate DiCamillo

  Hands, Sound, Tape

  TeachingBooks.net Interview, www.teachingbooks.net. November 12, 2005.

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