Alexander Chee Quotes

I do a lot of brainstorming with my editors.

I have great editors, and I always have. Somehow, great editors ask the right questions or pose things to you that get you to write better. It's a dance between you, your characters, and your editor.

I depend on good editors and a good director.

The relationship between a director and an editor in documentaries is so important.

I come out of journalism, and then book writing. There, it's just you and your editor and maybe a copy desk, looking over your editor's shoulder, and that's the story. It's right there. I can show it to you because it's on paper.

I think even if you're on a screen or you're in a play, it's always a group effort. It's not just the actors, it's the editor.

Every writer needs an editor. I don't care how good you are or think you are.

The work is different in the sense that I haven't had to travel round the world raising money, or work from the genesis of the project. But the collaboration feels clear always, it's sort of my drug, I'm in it for the conversation. The conversation's the most important part of it.

I've hung around in absolute exhaustion and starvation waiting for an idea to hit, which might have been months. I've talked things over with editors, found out what they wanted, and when they wanted it delivered.

If you are a good editor, your relationship with every writer is different.

Be collaborative. I've had some of my best experiences with directors who were able to sit down and have a conversation and ask me what I thought.

There's never any humongous next draft. I know a writer who every time he finished a novel - you would know his name very well - but his editor would come and live with him for a month. And they would go through the manuscript together.

The book is not completely written until someone else has read it.

Communicating with musicians is really interesting because everyone has their quirks and their strengths and their weaknesses.

Conversation is king. Content is just something to talk about.

One begins with two people on a stage, and one of them had better say something pretty quick.

Talk shows are proof that conversation is dead.

I think... you know, collaboration, in general - no matter movies, television or Broadway - is offering of what you can bring to the table and also fighting what you think the important battles are. Not everything is going to make it in there. Not everything is going to work. You have to collaborate. And you have to be a good listener.

It's botherin' me, man. You know, you can't say this, you can't say that, I'm like, well, how am I gonna talk about the world? You know? I mean I need to talk about something to you all, can I - can I do it? Can I talk to y'all? I mean, I hope the kids are in bed, you know, because I got to talk, y'all.

A conversation isn't a competition.

It may take a village to raise a baby, but hell! it takes an army to produce a book.

The one seeks a midwife to deliver his thoughts, the other, someone to assist: thus a good conversation comes into being.

A perfect movie is a different thing, but a funny movie is easy. I was really happy that I got everyone that I got. Everybody got to play to their strengths and was paired up in the right scenarios. It was very fortunate. It was exciting, the whole process. It makes more difficulty in editing 'cause there's more footage, but the guy I had handle it was a documentarian editor for a long time, so it was very useful.

My technicians are my most important tools. Once I establish a rapport with them, then they would understand me in my next film. I wouldn't have to train anyone new. I give a lot of respect to all my technicians, because I'm a technician too. I wouldn't be able to convey a feeling if the writer didn't write it well, and the cameraman didn't shoot it well.