Joe Eszterhas Quotes

It is better not to express what one means than to express what one does not mean.

I will not be misquoted!

I don't want someone taking half a sentence or paraphrasing me... Just too much risk.

The biggest problem I have in journalism is being quoted or misquoted and then being asked to defend something I haven't said.

The problem with merely writing so that you can be understood is that the wrong people, in advancing their agendas, are only too ready to misunderstand you. Writing so that you cannot be misunderstood anticipates and preempts those who would willfully distort what you are trying to say.

I'm pretty rigorous about the drafts I turn in. I don't turn in something that's so ungodly they go, 'What the hell is this?'

Another time factor is output: proofing and printing. That is, getting your work out of the computer and onto paper and having it satisfy you. It can be time consuming and expensive.

I have a problem with blogs - all the best writers benefit from edits.

If you get a sense that your writing isn't quite working, change it. Or cut it out. Don't just tell yourself it'll do, because it won't.

If you re-read your work, you can find on re-reading a great deal of repetition can be avoided by re-reading and editing.

Editing is kind of a solitary job.

I read stories aloud at every stage. I listen to my writer friends when they kindly offer criticism. I listen to my husband when he tells me something doesn't seem right. I have my mother's boyfriend, Loring Janes, read to make sure I get everything right with the machines and guns.

For me the writing, when I'm going to direct it myself, is really just the first draft, and I don't change it very much; I only change it on average about two lines per movie.

Scientifically speaking, if I say something, or it gets misquoted, or people put a spin on it... I mean, are you interested, really, in what people are saying?

After my husband spell-checks one of my manuscripts, my editor says, 'It's been Normanized.'

A thing is not necessarily true because badly uttered, nor false because spoken magnificently.

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

I'm a big fan of editing and keeping only the interesting bits in.

Telling the truth to people who misunderstand you is generally promoting a falsehood, isn't it?

Journalists have misquoted people for so long–and quoted them out of context–that many people like to have their words on record [in writing]. I don’t want someone taking half a sentence or paraphrasing me… Just too much risk.

I am usually protective of my work, not showing it to anyone until it has been redrafted and polished.

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.

A writer's job is to tell the truth.

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.

It's funny because you know the novel process: you get the drafts, you get the galley, and then you get the galley proofs. You have opportunities to change things all along. But the further along in the process you go, the more careful you have to be in making those changes, and the smaller the changes have to be.