Top 177 Rewriting Quotes & Sayings

Write. Rewrite. When not writing or rewriting, read. I know of no shortcuts.

Good writing is essentially rewriting.

The biggest challenge for me has been in coping with my perfectionism. I have a stiflingly hard time moving forward in a project if it's not 'just right' all along the way. The trap I so easily fall into is rewriting and rewriting the same scenes over and over to make them perfect, instead of continuing on into the wild unknown of the story.

Rewriting is like scrubbing the basement floor with a toothbrush.

The book really comes to life in the rewriting.

I do the same kind of rewriting that I do in the shorts that I do in long books - and that is a lot. The book really comes to life in the rewriting.

You let the story cool off and then, instead of rewriting it, you relive it.

My writing is a process of rewriting, of going back and changing and filling in. in the rewriting process you discover what's going on, and you go back and bring it up to that point.

Life is like a typographical error: we're constantly writing and rewriting things over each other.

Writing in journalism teaches you to be very comfortable taking criticism, being edited, and rewriting.

Too many are focused on rewriting the past, invent the future!

Writing is rewriting; rewriting is writing - from the first crossed-out word in the first sentence to the last word inserted above a caret, that most helpful handwritten stroke.

Directors sometimes have good ideas that I wished I'd had, not on rewriting but simply on staging.

I'm not someone who comes onstage and says, 'I'm rewriting this now.' I don't think it's fair to the writers or the director, or the other actors.

There are three primal urges in human beings: food, sex, and rewriting some else's play.

Writing is rewriting what you have rewritten.

On the one occasion where I did try writing a screenplay, I found the rewriting just unendurable.

Rewriting the negative beliefs you have learned is the essence of becoming the director of your life.

Hillary has already gotten a record $8 million advance from Simon & Schuster for the book -- reportedly the most anyone has ever received for rewriting history.

I once wrote a short story called 'The Best Blues Singer in the World,' and it went like this: 'The streets that Balboa walked were his own private ocean, and Balboa was drowning.' End of story. That says it all. Nothing else to say. I've been rewriting that same story over and over again. All my plays are rewriting that same story.

The process of rewriting is enjoyable, because you're not in that existential panic when you don't have a novel at all.

I love rewriting because that is where and how you discover the story. Its like you have this skeleton, and you get to put flesh on it and hair and clothes and really wonderful jewelry.

Rewriting is when writing really gets to be fun. . . . In baseball you only get three swings and you're out. In rewriting, you get almost as many swings as you want and you know, sooner or later, you'll hit the ball.

Good writing is writing and rewriting and rewriting and rewriting. Sometimes, it happens to work right away, and that's amazing. But most of the time, it happens to work, and then you rewrite and rewrite and rewrite, and maybe it even comes back to the thing it was in the first place, but then you know for sure that it is good, and it's what you wanted to do.

I get ill when I'm writing because I'm so focused on it, and it can take a year or two. Often, I knock out the first draft very quickly. I can do it in five to six weeks. Then, it takes a year of rewriting it and rewriting it.

Collaboration is all about rewriting and rewriting and rewriting and helping each other to constantly improve a piece. And, it's also about spurring each other on to doing really great, hard work - it's easier to do it in a collaboration than on your own.

[Rewriting is] a whole other art form; it's about craftsmanship.

The best writing is rewriting.

I think I became a better writer after I started writing for the New Yorker. Well, I know I did. And part of it was having my New Yorker editor and part of it is that was when I started really going on tour and reading things in front of an audience 30 times and then going back in the room and rewriting it and reading it and rewriting it. So you really get the rhythm of the sentences down and you really get the flow down and you get rid of stuff that's not important.

You couldn't hope to make a drama and have people rewriting on the day and having the actors making suggestions, "Wouldn't it be funny if my character did this?" "No. You're the actor. I'll tell you what to do."

Good writing is rewriting.

The only kind of writing is rewriting.

When rewriting, move quickly. It's a little like cutting your own hair.

Rewriting is the essence of writing well - where the game is won or lost.

Writing and rewriting are a constant search for what it is one is saying.

We're the new power, come to replace the old. Cameras in the head, children with microchips, spin doctors rewriting reality as it happens.

Rewriting to me means, if I work on it for three days, I've rewritten it.

When I say writing, O believe me, it is rewriting that I have chiefly in mind.

Studying writing to me means reading and also rewriting obsessively. That's the best way to learn.

Donald Trump has been rewriting the rules since he got into politics.

The one thing you don't want to do is go off and keep rewriting. If something's not quite right, it's often about modulating what's already there.

...but I could not sleep without proper covering and spent the rest of the night rewriting lost arguments from my past, altering history so that I emerged victorious.

Sometimes I think I'd be perfectly happy to go on rewriting 'Tipping the Velvet' forever because it was so much fun.

There's a lot going on in the world that's very disturbing: rewriting the Holocaust; pseudo-historians rewriting history itself. And we're dealing with a terrorist mentality that involves whole nations.

Dreaming and hoping won't produce a piece of work; only writing, rewriting and rewriting (if necessary)- a devoted translation of thoughts and dreams into words on paper will result in a story.

Collaboration is being open to each other's ideas and benefiting from each other's perspectives in an open way. Collaboration is all about rewriting and rewriting and rewriting and helping each other to constantly improve a piece. And, it's also about spurring each other on to doing really great, hard work - it's easier to do it in a collaboration than on your own.

Keep your hands moving. Writing is rewriting.

I still write with pen and paper and have someone type it on a computer. But rewriting I do by hand.

We are redefining terms and rewriting laws and removing fences everywhere you turn, and we seem to think we can do that with impunity.

My books are based on the "what if" principle. "What if you became invisible?" or "What if you did change into your mother for one day?" I then take it from there. Each book takes several months in the long process of writing, rewriting, writing, rewriting, and each has its own set of problems. The one thing I dislike about the writing process is the sometimes-loneliness of it all. Readers only get to see the glamour part of a bound book, not some of the agonizing moments one has while constructing it.

And after you've done the acting, there's a lot of places you can put your input - in the editing, in the production of it, in the rewriting of it and so on

I don't do much rewriting, because each paragraph is very carefully put together.

Particularly in my early days, I did very little rewriting.

Writing for me is largely about rewriting.

The main reason for rewriting is not to achieve a smooth surface, but to discover the inner truth of your characters.

I studied philosophy, religious studies, and English. My training was writing four full-length novels and hiring an editor to tear them apart. I had enough money to do that, and then rewriting and rewriting and rewriting.

For each detail I include, I throw dozens away. So I guess the first trick is to pick the right details, the most revealing details. Then I think one must simply write quick, clean, bright prose. For me, this means rewriting and rewriting: almost never adding, almost always cutting.

And after you've done the acting, there's a lot of places you can put your input - in the editing, in the production of it, in the rewriting of it and so on.

The past is a script we are constantly rewriting.

I never really like it when other writers talk about coming in behind people and rewriting.