Editors quotes
660 quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
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Browse quotes that often appear alongside editors — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
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"The conscious mind is the editor, and the subconscious mind is the writer. And the joy of writing, when you're writing from your subconscious, is beautiful - it's thrilling. When you're editing, which is your conscious mind, it's like torture."
"I trust it will not be giving away professional secrets to say that many readers would be surprised, perhaps shocked, at the questions which some newspaper editors will put to a defenseless woman under the guise of flattery."
"Any writer, I suppose, feels that the world into which he was born is nothing less than a conspiracy against the cultivation of his talent."
"I am not the editor of a newspaper and shall always try to do right and be good so that God will not make me one."
"Another editor. That thing behind his ear is his pencil. Whenever he finds a bright thing in your manuscript he strikes it out with that. That does him good, and makes him smile and show his teeth, the way he is doing in the picture. This one has just been striking out a smart thing, and now he is sitting there with his thumbs in his vest-holes, gloating. They are full of envy and malice, editors are."
"Editors of open anthologies actively seek submissions from all comers, established and unknown. They are willing to read whatever the tide washes up at their feet."
"Will you tell me my fault, frankly as to yourself, for I had rather wince, than die. Men do not call the surgeon to commend the bone, but to set it, Sir."
"I've been using the same editor, thankfully, she's been sticking with me, but I've been doing it full-on guerilla style... I haven't gotten any public sponsor or anything, because I don't want to seem like I'm trying to sell any particular thing."
"I wasn't a fashion editor. I was the one and only fashion editor."
"Anyone who edits their own copy has a fool for an editor."
"I don't even like showing my stuff to publishers and editors much."
"If teachers and grammar school editors find my jawbreaker sentences shatter their mushmilk teeth, let them eat stale cake dunked in weak tea of their own ungodly manufacture."
"A Fourth Estate, of Able Editors, springs up."
"Doing comedy for film is always a challenge because you are in the hands of the editor after the fact. I am hoping I can do some more soon, I enjoy doing comedy."
"You have to give an editor something to change, or he gets fretful. After he pees in it, he likes the flavor better, so he buys it."
"Editors always amputate the brain first and preserve a good-looking corpse."
"I love the auditioning process. I love working with the technical guys. I absolutely love the editing room. That was completely fascinating to me, working with an editor in crafting the thing into something you had in your head."
"One of the things I like about publishing is that you don't promote the editor - you promote the book and the author."
"A good editor understands what you're talking and writing about and doesn't meddle too much."
"I'm at a stage in my career where I don't expect or get too much editorial input into what I'm doing. I have a proven track record of success, so my editors are willing to cut me some slack even when a particular approach is not to their personal taste."
