Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux Quotes

To do something right it must be done twice. The first time instructs the second.

There's always things you can refine and polish.

I am a fan of rehearsal. I like doing it [scene] over and over and over and over until it looks like you never did it before.

As people do a task, they improve at it.

Part of creating is understanding that there is always more to do; nothing is ever completely finished.

I do better on the first three takes; I won't be better at 20 takes.

Rehearsals make a huge difference.

Every time you go out on the ice, there are slight flaws. You can always think of something you should have done better. These are the things you must work on.

You work on an idea, your first interpretation is very raw and you work it and you work it and it gets polished and polished. It gets to a certain level and then it comes down off that peak.

Anything worth doing is worth doing twice, the first time quick and dirty and the second time the best way you can.

You have to always work on your batting as you are never perfect. I am working on my batting every day and trying to perfect a few shots that will help me score all around the world.

Whenever you step on the ice, you need to be a student of the game and try to hone your craft. You're never going to play a perfect match, but you're always chasing that perfect game.

That's kind of how I see my workmanship: it's how many hours I put in that makes me better.

I think it's almost impossible to edit something to death. I think you can make things better almost indefinitely.

Arts and sciences are not cast in a mould, but are found and perfected by degrees, by often handling and polishing.

Perfect practice makes perfect.

Practice makes perfect.

When I was a carpenter, I once worked with this Russian lady architect. I would tell her, ‘Look, I’m terribly sorry, but I want to change that a half inch,’ and she would say, ‘No limit for better.’ I think that is a worthy credo. You keep on going until you get it as close to being right as the time and patience of others will allow.

It's never perfect when I write it down the first time, or the second time, or the fifth time. But it always gets better as I go over it and over it.

By concentrating on precision, one arrives at technique, but by concentrating on technique one does not arrive at precision.

I must work hard to make my singing above reproach; there must be no faults which hard work would take care of.

Few ideas work on the first try. Iteration is key to innovation.

I am not an 'instant' actor... to really do anything, I've got to try it five or six or a dozen times.

As a very experienced writer once told me, 'It's in the rewrites'.

I'm a fairly fast, but sloppy writer, so I'm a big fan of re-writing, and re-writing again.