Editors Quotes - Page 29

• I was in a pharmacy and I saw the warnings on the backs of poisonous substances, and I thought, "Well, that's what I can do." So I wrote a list of ingredients in the book, and warnings that they shouldn't consume those ingredients. The editor and the publisher thought that it was a great way to go in terms of reverse psychology, but it honestly hadn't occurred to me that it was reverse psychology. I just thought that it was sort of an honest assessment making clear that if you were timid or easily disturbed, you could turn away.

  Daniel Handler

  Book, Assessment, Psychology

  Interview with Tasha Robinson, www.avclub.com. November 16, 2005.

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• I'd finished the first two [books] and they were going to to be published, and [editor] said, "We need you to write a summary that will drive people to these books." And it took forever. I couldn't think of a thing to say. I looked at the back of other children's books that were full of giddy praise and corny rhetorical questions, you know, "Will she have a better time at summer camp than she thinks?" "How will she escape from the troll's dungeon?" All these terrible, terrible summaries of books, and I just couldn't.

  Daniel Handler

  Summer, Children, Book

  Interview with Tasha Robinson, www.avclub.com. November 16, 2005.

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• I'd written my first novel for adults, which was called Basic Eight and was set in a high school, and we were having a devil of a time selling it. It ended up in the hands of an editor of a children's publishing house, for which it was entirely inappropriate. She said, "Well, we can't publish this, but I think you should write something for children," which I thought was a really terrible idea.

  Daniel Handler

  Children, Writing, School

  Interview with Tasha Robinson, www.avclub.com. November 16, 2005.

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• I'd trained to be a diplomat but the state department said I was too liberal. I saw an ad in the New York Times ... a hack Californian editor came to New York to butcher some films and he needed an assistant. For some reason I read it that day and it changed my life. I went to work for him and he was horrible, butchering these masterpieces by Antonioni, Visconti, but I learned enough to know what he was doing wrong.

  Thelma Schoonmaker

  New York, Diplomats, Saws

  Source: www.fluxmagazine.com

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• The main thing is that you have a good editor - one that believes in you and who will give you the feedback that you need to produce a good book.

  Christopher Darden

  Believe, Book, Giving

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• When coming up with Wonder Woman cover designs, sometimes people will pitch ideas to me, either the writer or the editor. And it's interesting, because I know they're not trying to, but they end up pitching things that end up feeling like damsel-in-distress covers, where the tension comes from her needing to be rescued somehow. And it's something I immediately push back against.

  Cliff Chiang

  Book, Ideas, Interesting

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• Chats are so new to newspapers, historically. But they're so incredibly valuable because editors/reporters/columnists get to find out what's on the minds of our readers, what you think we should be writing about, what ticks you off, what makes you happy. Sometimes it can confirm what you think readers are interested in; sometimes it can turn you around 180 degrees.

  Michael Wilbon

  Writing, Thinking, Mind

  "The Chat House with Michael Wilbon". www.washingtonpost.com. December 6, 2010.

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• I have a great editor and I enjoy, in a masochistic way, being ruthless about my own performance. How do I know, but I think I'm quite good at saying, "That's no good. That's no good. That's it. That's it. That's good." And I'm with the editor who goes, "No, I think you're wrong. That's not your best." There's an initial point in the editing, if you're directing yourself, especially in my case, where you go, "Ouch, ouch, ouch, I can't watch this." And then, there's a point where you become hard-nosed and just take your neurosis away and go, "What's working? That's okay. That's okay. We can lose that, and lose that." You get objective about it.

  Ralph Fiennes

  Editing, Ouch, Neurosis

  "Ralph Fiennes Talks THE INVISIBLE WOMAN, Acting and Directing, Editing His Performance, and THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL". Interview with Christina Radish, collider.com. December 23, 2013.

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• An editor is like a professional reader, and as I became a better reader, I also became a better writer.

  Karen Thompson Walker

  Reader

  "The Writing Life: An Interview with Karen Thompson Walker". Hazel & Wren Interview, www.hazelandwren.com. July 24, 2012.

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• if the way ahead is not clear, time is often the best editor of one's intentions.

  Jacqueline Winspear

  Time, Way, Intention

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• As an editor, I must often tell writers that their stories "do not fit our present needs." But there are times when I want to reply: "Sir, I would not trust you to write a ransom note."

  Richard Conniff

  Writing, History, Needs

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• I think sometimes I might scare the editors, because they might feel they're getting old and they're not understanding it. The problem lies on their side of the fence, not mine. I come from a different era and I design clothes for our era.

  Alexander McQueen

  Lying, Thinking, Clothes

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• At certain times each year, we journalists do almost nothing except apply for the Pulitzers and several dozen other major prizes. During these times you could walk right into most newsrooms and commit a multiple axe murder naked, and it wouldn't get reported in the paper because the reporters and editors would all be too busy filling out prize applications.

  Dave Barry

  Years, Naked, Paper

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• I believe in hiring people to do their jobs.I want to hire an editor.They say you make a movie three times: when you write it, when you direct it, and when you edit it. So I have three shots to get it right!

  Nate Parker

  Jobs, Believe, Writing

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• Directing is such alchemy, it's so easy to fail. And I've seen people who are great at their jobs because everybody has a go. Editors, DPs, actors, craft services guy, everybody wants to try it out but it is such a diffuse but necessary set of skills that you never know which one this person might lack.

  Joss Whedon

  Jobs, Skills, People

  Source: www.complex.com

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• By this point, it was clear she wasn't interested in continuing the relationship. What publication on earth would continue a relationship with a writer who would refuse to discuss her work with her editors? What publication would continue to publish a writer who attacked it on TV? What publication would continue to publish a writer who lied about it - on TV and to a Washington Post reporter? ... It's true: Ann is fearless, in person and in her writing. But fearlessness isn't an excuse for crappy writing or crappier behavior.

  Jonah Goldberg

  Writing, Scary, Fearless

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• Authors who moan with praise for their editors always seem to reek slightly of the Stockholm syndrome.

  Christopher Hitchens

  Writing, Praise, Syndromes

  Christopher Hitchens (2013). “Blood, Class and Empire: The Enduring Anglo-American Relationship”, p.8, Atlantic Books Ltd

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• I had a background in theater as an actor, and then a photographer, and then as an experimental filmmaker and editor.

  Lynn Shelton

  Actors, Photographer, Theater

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• I don't mind being identified as any character as long as I'm doing a good job as an actor. I have done all kinds of roles - from an editor, judge, police officer, murderer to a corrupt businessman.

  Boman Irani

  Jobs, Character, Long

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• Journalists who are devoted to strictly factual reporting take particular pleasure from satirical news outlets that have the liberty to laugh and even mock the hypocrisy that reporters and editors must simply observe without comment.

  Tom Rachman

  Laughing, Hypocrisy, Liberty

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• Scandal has a thousand stringers; good news doesn't know the editor's phone number.

  William Raspberry

  Phones, Numbers, News

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• In live-action, writing, production and editing happen in discrete stages. In animation, they overlap - happening simultaneously. This allows a real dialogue to occur between the writer, the director, the actors and the editor, and it makes the writing process a lot more collaborative and a lot less lonely.

  Michael Arndt

  Lonely, Real, Writing

  "Toy Story 3′ screenwriter talks toys with the Daily". Interview with Lorrayne Shen, tuftsdaily.com. November 4, 2010.

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• Why, it appears that we appointed all of our worst generals to command the armies and we appointed all of our best generals to edit the newspapers. I mean, I found by reading a newspaper that these editor generals saw all of the defects plainly from the start but didn't tell me until it was too late. I'm willing to yield my place to these best generals and I'll do my best for the cause by editing a newspaper.

  Robert E. Lee

  Reading, Mean, Army

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• What is an editor but a cross between a fall guy and a father figure? arthur koestler

  Arthur Koestler

  Family, Father, Fall

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• I learned early on that it's heartbreaking to - there's the editor that comes in, and then they have to craft the movie together, and sometimes you give a whole performance that's just been cut up, and maybe it's better for it, absolutely, but you still have to deal with the loss of that.

  Tavis Smiley

  Cutting, Loss, Giving

  Source: www.pbs.org

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