Editing Quotes

“There's many a bestseller that could have been prevented by a good editor.”

“You're not a good director unless you're a good editor.”

“I think curiosity is the most important quality an editor can have.”

“An editor is a person who knows more about writing than writers do but who has escaped the terrible desire to write.”

“We love our writers. They are the magazine.”

“An editor should have a nose for a good book, but it is even more important for him to have a good stomach, for he will have to eat many of his words.”

“Nothing is added to the original text; but those words and expressions are omitted which cannot with propriety be read aloud in a family.”

“I always say that a magazine is a party. You want to invite the right people.”

“The essence of cinema is editing. It's the combination of what can be extraordinary images of people during emotional moments, or images in a general sense, put together in a kind of alchemy.”

“When your story is ready for rewrite, cut it to the bone. Get rid of every ounce of excess fat.”

“The joy of being an editor is that you can say what you like about people, and then they can sue you.”

“What you're trying to do is find the 'there' there. You're trying to find the emotional truth of the scene.”

“The blink is a way of punctuating your thoughts.”

“I've always believed that you can't have a great publishing house without great editors.”

“A good editor is someone who cares a little less about the author's needs than the reader's.”

“The first thing I did when I took over Batman was to get rid of the aliens and the Bat-babies and the Bat-apes and all that nonsense.”

“I believe more in the scissors than I do in the pencil.”

“I think that the best training a director can have is to be a film editor.”

“A film is made in the cutting room.”

“Every cut is a lie. But it's a lie in the service of truth.”