Copyediting Quotes

My only claim to fame, if I have one, is that I'm an editor.

A very good editor is almost a collaborator.

Editing is the same as quarrelling with writers - same thing exactly.

The life of an editor may seem all glam all the time, but there's nothing like schlepping through the city during a torrential downpour to put things in perspective.

I'm a fierce editor! I don't edit out things that I began by saying, usually. The editing is on the micro level - a comma here, a word there.

'Weedflower' was already in the copyediting phase when I heard about the Newbery award, so it didn't really influence my writing of that book, but since then, I have become more aware of having an audience.

I like being an editor, and I know how to make a magazine.

The writer marks the changes he wants to make, while a proofreader also goes through the galley, checking it page-by-page against the manuscript. Once all these changes are identified, a second-pass proof is made, and this, too, gets sent to the author and the proofreader, and the process begins anew.

Writers have to put up with this editor thing; it is ageless and eternal and wrong.

I was now ordered to have my writings copied, and put into the printer's hand.

A good part of the work is just reading a manuscript and coming to the office. I can't imagine wanting to even read an article about book publishing.

What helps change bad writing into mediocre writing is editing. Editing is in bad shape in print journalism, and is in virtually nonexistent shape in online journalism.

I've been a teacher at the college level, in composition mostly, and I've been an editor on magazines.

'The New Yorker' was really my first experience with serious editing. Previously, I'd more or less just had copyediting with a few suggestions - not much.

The most painstaking phase comes when the manuscript is set in 'type' for the first time and the first proofs of the book are printed. These initial copies are called first-pass proofs or galleys.

The life of an editor is not a glamorous one. You're a fixer; you make things better.

I'm really happy to have the chance to talk about the editing process. It's something that I think doesn't get the weight it deserves, especially with the rise of self-publishing.

Like all editors, I assume, I'm a reactor.

Many writers learned their craft and work ethic at a newspaper. I benefited from that.

The copyeditor I drew was a brachycephalic, web-footed cretin who should have been in an institution learning how to make brooms.