Robert Gottlieb Quotes

Editing is the same as quarrelling with writers - same thing exactly.

A very good editor is almost a collaborator.

The life of an editor is not a glamorous one. You're a fixer; you make things better.

I used to work as a proofreader at Merrill Lynch.

I'm really happy to have the chance to talk about the editing process. It's something that I think doesn't get the weight it deserves, especially with the rise of self-publishing.

The writer marks the changes he wants to make, while a proofreader also goes through the galley, checking it page-by-page against the manuscript. Once all these changes are identified, a second-pass proof is made, and this, too, gets sent to the author and the proofreader, and the process begins anew.

What helps change bad writing into mediocre writing is editing. Editing is in bad shape in print journalism, and is in virtually nonexistent shape in online journalism.

Every book has mistakes in them, every one. There's never been a book published without mistakes.

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

Writing is probably one-fifth coming up with the stuff, and four-fifths self-editing again and again and again.

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

People might be surprised to know how much I throw away. For every page I publish, I throw 10 pages away.

Sometimes I can spend as long revising a manuscript as I spent writing it in the first place.

I always rewrite each day up to the point where I stopped. When it is all finished, naturally you go over it. You get another chance to correct and rewrite when someone else types it, and you see it clean in type. The last chance is in the proofs. You're grateful for these different chances.

I think that the continuity of what I do as an editor with what I did when I started out 40 years ago is very direct. The delivery system is changing and will continue to, but the actual interaction between publisher and author is exactly the same.

Editing is simply the application of the common sense of any good reader. That's why, to be an editor, you have to be a reader. It's the number one qualification.

Manuscript: something submitted in haste and returned at leisure.

I always read the translator's draft all the way through - a very laborious business.

I'm constantly revising. Once the book is written and typed, I go through the entire draft again.

Copy editors are very important and too rarely praised.

A ratio of failures is built into the process of writing. The wastebasket has evolved for a reason.

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.

My toughest criticism usually comes from myself. As my editor can attest to, I'm never done tweaking a book until the production department has to rip it from my hands!

There are two kinds of editors, those who correct your copy and those who say it's wonderful.

Everybody needs an editor.