Philip K. Dick Quotes

Good writing is everything.

For me, the bottom line is what's on the page.

I believe an editor's job is to help a writer sound like himself or herself.

A good editor understands what you're talking and writing about and doesn't meddle too much.

Trying to get the sentences right and the structure of the narration right is about as big a job as I can handle. But I also know that if you handle that job properly, everything else just clicks into place.

Good sense is both the first principal and the parent source of good writing.

You write with ease to show your breeding, but easy writing's curst hard reading.

It's not hard to write poorly. But to write something good, it has to be revised.

I have a hard time revising sentences, because I spend an inordinate amount of time on each sentence, and the sentence before it, and the sentence after it.

If you can talk, you can write.

I think in any writing you're paying attention to detail.

I'm a writer first and an editor second... or maybe third or even fourth. Successful editing requires a very specific set of skills, and I don't claim to have all of them at my command.

In composing, as a general rule, run your pen through every other word you have written; you have no idea what vigor it will give your style.

Careful writing is important for many reasons, not least that intelligent but hurried reporters will trust the presser, resulting in a cascade of secondary damage.

The proper words in the proper places are the true definition of style.

A novelist can never be his own reader, except when he is ridding his manuscript of syntax errors, repetitions, or the occasional superfluous paragraph.

One mistake with beginners in writing is, that they think it important to spin out something long. It is a great deal better not to write more than a page or two, unless you have something to say, and can write it correctly.

Take advantage of every opportunity to practice your communication skills so that when important occasions arise, you will have the gift, the style, the sharpness, the clarity, and the emotions to affect other people.

I'm a matter-of-fact, office-hours writer.

I'm not a very good writer, but I'm an excellent rewriter.

A good novel editor is invisible.

I'd like to take a course in writing. I'm not the best writer in the world. I'd like to write more neatly, even though people don't send many handwritten letters these days.

If You Do Not Write It, You Never Said It

For correct writing, the cultivation of patience and mental accuracy is essential. Throughout the young author's period of apprenticeship, he must keep reliable dictionaries and textbooks at his elbow; eschewing as far as possible that hasty extemporaneous manner of writing which is the privilege of more advanced students.

I write my columns pretty carefully.