Revision Quotes

When the facts change, one ought to change one’s opinion.

I don't feel I write fast. I write in longhand and do so much revision. On the page, it's so old-fashioned. I could write a whole novel on scrap paper, scribbles and things. I keep looking at it and something develops. For me, using a word processor would mean staring at a screen for too many hours.

One duty we owe to history is to rewrite it.

I have rewritten — often several times — every word I have ever published. My pencils outlast their erasers.

Writing is revision. All prose responds to work.

I spent the entire morning inserting a comma; I spent the whole afternoon removing it again.

I've never made any film that I wouldn't go back and re-edit.

The Islam Ataturk professed contained nothing contrary to reason and progress.

I'm a fairly fast, but sloppy writer, so I'm a big fan of re-writing, and re-writing again.

I'm probably tougher on myself than I used to be. I'll revise my lyrics more. Part of that is working with the right people and producers who will say, 'How can you make that better?' Allowing yourself to collaborate with people will push you toward transcendence.

I rewrote the ending of 'Farewell to Arms' 39 times before I was satisfied.

It's never too late - in fiction or in life - to revise.

I always rewrite each day up to the point where I stopped. When it is all finished, naturally you go over it. You get another chance to correct and rewrite when someone else types it, and you see it clean in type. The last chance is in the proofs. You're grateful for these different chances.

Only when you have completed a novel, or a story, can you return to the beginning and revise or rewrite.

No passion in the world is equal to the passion to alter someone else's draft.

Always remember those things that tend to strengthen and improve your understanding. You cannot learn without attention, neither retain those lessons that you have once learnt without frequently reflecting upon and reviewing them in your mind; by this means, things long past will remain impressed upon your memory.

Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere. Start by getting something-anything-down on paper. A friend of mine says that the first draft is the down draft-you just get it down. The second draft is the up draft-you fix it up. You try to say what you have to say more accurately. And the third draft is the dental draft, where you check every tooth, to see if it's loose or cramped or decayed, or even, God help us, healthy.

When I write a book, I write very cleanly from page one to the last page. I hardly ever write out of sequence.

The thing I love about making movies is the peace of mind that I know I don't have to be perfect the first time. I can be perfect the second time or the third time.

I deliberate over the lyrics; I really do. I'll come up with one line in a day, and then it might be a couple of days before I come up with the rhyming line. It's never been easy for me.

Having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged by better information or fuller consideration, to change opinions even on important subjects, which I once thought right, but found to be otherwise.

If you're going to write a good book, you have to make mistakes and you have to not be so cautious all the time.

I always read what I write out loud, and I did that long before any radio thing. My editor finds that unusual.

I wrote a piece for the school literary magazine that now makes me think: 'My God in Heaven, this is just the worst drivel.'

You read something and you know it's not there yet. There's a little section here that... this part's good but that is a little not, it doesn't quite work. That doesn't quite work. That's easy. To say, "OK, now, this is what I think will fix it." That's harder. And most people can tell you what's wrong with something. Very few people can say what they would do to fix it.