Writers on Revision

"To destroy is always the first step in any creation."

- e. e. cummings

"All writing is a campaign against cliche. Not just cliches of the pen but cliches of the mind and cliches of the heart."

- Martin Amis

"I have rewritten―often several times―every word I have ever published. My pencils outlast their erasers."

- Vladimir Nabokov

"If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it."

- Elmore Leonard

"The wastepaper basket is the author's best friend."

- Isaac Bashevis Singer

“Throw up into your typewriter every morning. Clean up every noon.”

- Raymond Chandler

“By the time I am nearing the end of a story, the first part will have been reread and altered and corrected at least one hundred and fifty times. I am suspicious of both facility and speed. Good writing is essentially rewriting. I am positive of this.”

- Roald Dahl

“The more you leave out, the more you highlight what you leave in.” - Henry Green