Top 68 Self Editing Quotes
#1. Writing is probably one-fifth coming up with the stuff, and four-fifths self-editing again and again and again.
David Mitchell
#3. Self editing is the path to the dark side. Self editing leads to self delusion, self delusion leads to missed mistakes, missed mistakes lead to bad reviews. Bad reviews are the tools of the dark side.
Eric T. Benoit
#4. Writing is all about self-editing; it's all about being present being aware of what's happening
Joan Armatrading
#5. Self-editing is the way I write. Ten verses of a song and it's finished. Then we start playing it and if I see that it's too long, I'll start cutting.
Nick Cave
#6. For most people, I edit. Most people are definitely getting along on the Cliffs Notes.
Suzanne Finnamore
#7. Every syllable that can be struck out is pure profit, and every page that can be economised is a five-per-cent dividend. Nature rebels against this rule; the flesh is weak, and shrinks from the scissors; I groan in retrospect over the weak.
Henry Adams
#8. There are two things wrong with almost all legal writing. One is its style. The other is its content.
Fred Rodell
#9. I don't think music affects what words I choose to type in what order, within what punctuation, at this point, because I'm rereading and editing each sentence, at this point, in my published books, probably 100-150 times each, on average, and listening to probably 20-60 different songs in that time.
Tao Lin
#10. Make sure your message is clear, yet that you are faithful to its complexity.
Michael Dirda
#11. We love seeing raw truth and openness in other people, but we're afraid to let them see it in us. We're afraid that our truth isn't enough - that what we have to offer isn't enough without the bells and whistles, without editing, and impressing.
Brene Brown
#12. From 2005 to 2010, I was exclusively shooting 'The Act of Killing' and then editing it.
Joshua Oppenheimer
#13. Having gone through editing process, I can see that in actor's faces there's point where they're not managing their performance and that's, I think, the best place to be. You've done the homework, you've learned the lines, at that point you just sort of let it out.
Ralph Fiennes
#14. Most of my material is , it doesn't necessarily involve a lot of editing. So even the show with the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia, I don't have to worry about some of the material being inappropriate.
Jim Gaffigan
#15. I got to spend all of my time every day at work reading and editing papers about cutting-edge technical research and getting paid for it. Then I'd go home at night and turn what I learned into science fiction stories.
Kevin J. Anderson
#16. I think an editing style is something that is ascribed to the work after-the-fact. I don't think you go in with a particular intention, but I think if there is an integrity to the work and the material you are working with, the work comes from the nature of that material.
Jay Cassidy
#17. Editing is like strawberries put on the table as a centerpiece, before the full course meal, but, you don't want them to become spoiled, or your guests will go to the neighbor's house next door.
Angel M.B. Chadwick
#18. The greatest films ever made in our history were cut on film, and I'm tenaciously hanging on to the process. I just love going into an editing room and smelling the photochemistry and seeing my editor wearing mini-strands of film around his neck.
Steven Spielberg
#19. The film's dramatic requirements should always take precedence over the mere aesthetics of editing.
Edward Dmytryk
#20. Poetry is everywhere; it just needs editing.
James Tate
#21. When I watch the movie, which is I don't know how many times I've done now with editing and everything, I walk out giddy just because I feel like that's the movie that I want to see.
Thomas Tull
#22. I love the editing process of making movies. I just wish that life had one.
Mike Nichols
#23. Movies become art after editing. Instead of just reproducing reality, they juxtapose images of it. That implies expression; that's art.
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
#24. You really like putting it all on display, don't you? No editing."
"I'm not playing games with you, Sam. I have no intention of hiding what I want; I won't make that mistake again.
Genna Rulon
#25. I did a film that I shot in 24 hours that was self-financed for $5,000. It was a feature called Looking For Jimmy that I shot with a bunch of friends. I spent eight months editing because we had 24 hours of footage that made no sense and I learned a lot about directing while editing that film.
Julie Delpy
#26. I can hire out for editing, proofreading, formatting, and cover design, and those are fixed, sunk costs. Once those are paid, I can earn 70% on a self-pubbed ebook.
J.A. Konrath
#27. I enjoy twitter accounts that are meticulously edited just as much as I enjoy twitter accounts that aren't edited at all, but it can feel kind of disappointing to me when I see that someone is editing their tweets out of self-consciousness.
Mira Gonzalez
#28. The writing itself is no big deal. The editing, and even more than that, the self-doubt, is excruciatingly impossible.
Jonathan Safran Foer
#29. I've puzzled over the difficulty that students have with editing, and I think I've identified its source: It's their self-talk. We all talk to ourselves, inside our heads. That's what consciousness is.
Richard Rhodes
#30. Self publishing' is not as easy as it is portrayed! When you think you have finished your book, proof read, proof read again, and again, and again. Don't believe it is ready until you have a hard copy proofed!
Phil Simpkin
#31. Maybe writing can't be taught, but editing can be taught - prayer, fasting and self-mutilation.
Donald Barthelme
#32. One of the biggest differences between you and a traditionally published author is that a self-pubbed author is responsible for everything. Not just writing the book - but cover design, editing, producing, distribution, and publicity as well.
M.J. Rose
#33. You'll learn that the key to a great book is editing - grinding, buffing, and polishing - not writing.
Guy Kawasaki
#34. Amanda Hocking and Hugh Howey have been successful in their self-publishing ventures. But notice that Hocking would prefer to write and hand over the editing, promotion, and selling to a traditional publisher.
Ellen Datlow
#35. Put down everything that comes into your head and then you're a writer. But an author is one who can judge his own stuff's worth, without pity, and destroy most of it.
(Casual Chance, 1964)
Colette
#36. Although selfhood depends causally upon the existence of the brain, it amounts to something far more than the brain. This something is vague and intangible, and might best be described, I think, as a semi-fictional narrative that is in constant need of writing, editing, and preserving.
Neel Burton
#37. Racing cars which have been converted for road use never really work. It's like making a hard core adult film, and then editing it so that it can be shown in British hotels. You'd just end up with a sort of half hour close up of some bloke's sweaty face.
Jeremy Clarkson
#38. I realized - and I am probably the last person in the world to realize this - that we live our lives with no editing.
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
#39. 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.
Sarah Dessen
#40. I tend to elongate the sentences as I'm writing and editing, and there is just something about the feeling of writing longhand that I really love.
Lily King
#41. I wish I could play music. I think I get as closeas possible with the editing of the films. Over the years musichas been an even more important influence than-or as important as-film.There's no doubt about it. Painting, movement, dance, sculpture-it'sall in cinema.
Martin Scorsese
#42. If you're writing a screenplay for a feature, you don't have any involvement with the casting process, the editing process, the set design, the costume design, or any of that stuff.
David Benioff
#43. Sometimes you just create a joke out of thin air in the editing room. So I'm really glad I've had that experience. It gives me a little more confidence in front of the camera.
Ed Helms
#44. Waiting for the German verb is surely the ultimate thrill.
Flann O'Brien
#45. I am not altogether confident of my ability to put my thoughts into words: My texts are usually better after an editor has hacked away at them, and I am used to both editing and being edited. Which is to say that I am not oversensitive in such matters.
Stieg Larsson
#46. Writing one's first novel, getting it sold, and shepherding it through the labyrinths of editing, production, marketing, journalism, and social media is an arduous and nerve-wracking process.
Paul Di Filippo
#47. There is anxiety, but it comes after you've finished filming because it's out of your hands; people are editing it, they're cutting it, marketing it. And it's ... part your career sort of rides on that. But when you're actually filming it's a team thing and it really feels good there for me.
Hugh Jackman
#48. You know, I do music. If you look under the hood of the industry I'm in, it's all based on technology. From radio to phonographs to CDs, it's all technology. Microphones, reel-to-reels, cameras, editing, chips, it's all technology.
Will.i.am
#49. In the editing room, 20 percent of the time you're using stuff from before the actor knew the camera was rolling or you're taking a line from somewhere else and putting it in his mouth.
Campbell Scott
#50. I realized that a lot of the great directors that I admire from [Ingmar] Bergman to [Fredrico] Fellini re always shooting, then going into the editing room, and shooting again.
Marc Forster
#51. Once I'm in the editing room, forget about what I intended to shoot. I take a cold, hard look at what I really did shoot, and then I edit that because, if you try to edit what you intended and you missed somewhere, that will show up.
Doug Liman
#52. I'm proud of the way I rearrange and put things together, like a chef who makes a great meal, or a filmmaker who puts together a story - it's casting, editing, cinematography.
Bonnie Raitt
#53. The problems I have with a flawed script are always revealed in the editing room.
Xavier Dolan
#54. Editing is such a voyeuristic treat for me. I land on a theme and ask authors to pen works that fit the topic.
Alison Tyler
#55. People come up to me and say "Steve, what is film editing?" And I say "How should I know? You're the director.
Steve Martin
#56. Most fledgling and mid-list writers are lucky to be offered a 4-figure sum and are not only expected to deliver copy that needs minimal editing but also take an active part in marketing and publicizing their work.
Sara Sheridan
#57. Basically, editing is done in rehearsal and in the writing process and in the acting, so it's very, very tricky, very, very tricky.
Julie Delpy
#58. I'm a big fan of editing and keeping only the interesting bits in.
Sarah Vowell
#59. I took courses at USC in film editing and art direction and photography when I was still in high school.
Ray Harryhausen
#60. The bottom line is that your performance is made in the editing room.
Brent Sexton
#61. I'm in awe of directors like the Coen brothers who can shoot their script and edit it, and that's the movie. They're not discovering the movie in postproduction. They're editing the script they shot.
Spike Jonze
#62. I spend a lot of time in preproduction working with authors, and a lot of time in postproduction.: editing, music, all that sort of stuff. Casting. On the set there's not a lot for me to do.
Charlie Kaufman
#63. I am somebody who usually writes out the rough draft in longhand. Then I type it into the computer, and that is where I do my editing. I find that if I write it on the computer, I go too quick. So I like getting that first draft out and then typing it in; you are less self-conscious about it.
Barack Obama
#64. When you're done shooting, the movie that you're going to release when you're done shooting is as bad as it will ever be. And then through editing, and finishing the effects and adding music, you get to make the movie better again. So I'm really hard on myself and on the movie.
Barry Sonnenfeld
#65. A lot of it is found in the editing room and part of that is due to some of the improvisational tactics we employ on set. Part of it is that the shot goes a little bit long and they end up coming down to fit time.
Mark Duplass
#66. (R)eality TV (is) a medium dedicated to the proposition that with the help of judicious editing, carefully chosen half-wits can hold the attention of millions of their fellow half-wits for weeks on end.
Terry Teachout
#67. Editing is like attending a ten year reunion with your characters.
Stephanie Ayers
#68. Feature filmmaking is a different kind of complication as documentary comes in the editing room.
Nicholas Jarecki
