To write is human, to edit is divine. - Stephen King

The secret to editing your work is simple: you need to become its reader instead of its writer. - Zadie Smith

Editing is a kind of creative activity where, in a perfect world, an author and an editor find that elusive oneness to understand each other intuitively. - Sahara Sanders

For the relationship to work, the writer and editor must respect each other’s expertise and passion. - Rebecca Wenrich Wheeler

It’s hard to take someone seriously when they leave a note saying ‘your ugly.’ My ugly what? The idiot didn’t even know the difference between your and you’re. - Cara Lynn Shultz

Words. Words. I play with words, hoping that some combination, even a chance combination, will say what I want. - Doris Lessing

Editing should be, especially in the case of old writers, a counseling rather than a collaborating task. The tendency of the writer-editor to collaborate is natural, but he should say to himself, ‘How can I help this writer to say it better in his own style?’ and avoid ‘How can I show him how I would write it, if it were my piece?’ - James Thurber

Editors have to be vicious. They’re working for the reader, not the writer. - Brendan Wolfe

I feel sorry for people who have to edit me. Which is why book writing is by far the most enjoyable. - Chuck Klosterman

Good friends, good books, and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life. - Mark Twain

This parrot is no more. It has ceased to be. It’s expired and gone to meet its maker. This is a late parrot. It’s a stiff. Bereft of life, it rests in peace. If you hadn’t nailed it to the perch, it would be pushing up the daisies. It’s rung down the curtain and joined the choir invisible. This is an ex-parrot. - Graham Chapman

There’s an old rule of theater that goes, “If there’s a gun on the mantle in act one, it must go off in act two.” The reverse is also true. - Steven King

The voice of the narrator who knows the whole story cannot be dismissed as old-fashioned or uncool. It’s not only the oldest and the most widely used storytelling voice, it’s also the most versatile, flexible, and complex of the points of view. - Ursula K. LeGuin

Plots may be simple or complex, but suspense and climactic progress from one incident to another, are essential. - HP Lovecraft

I feel thin, sort of stretched, like butter scraped over too much bread. - JRR Tolkein

Writing without revising is the literary equivalent of waltzing gaily out of the house in your underwear. - Patricia Fuller

The miracle is the adverbs, the way things are done. - Daniel HandlerI believe the road to hell is paved with adverbs, and I will shout it from the rooftops. - Stephen King

“We will speak for the books.""Like the Lorax?""The Lorax speaks for the trees.""Books are made out of paper.”“Paper is made out of trees.""What about e-books?""We can speak for them too.""Audiobooks?""Audiobooks speak for themselves."― Paul Acampora

Advertising brings in customers, but word-of-mouth brings in the best customers. - Jonah Berger