Voltaire Quotes

Write something and leave it aside so you've practically forgotten it as much as possible, a month or so, then come back and read it as if you're reading it for the first time.

With writing, we have second chances.

I love revisions...We can't go back and revise our lives, but being allowed to go back and revise what we have written comes closest.

Write. Write. Write. Learn how to revise. No story is perfect straight from the keyboard.

Let the past be content with itself, for man needs forgetfulness as well as memory.

Instead of a dedicated room, my best trigger is the actual habit of reading over the texts from the day before. Marking. Changing. Fussing. This ritual amounts to a habit of trust. Trust that I can make it better. That if I keep trying, I will come closer to something true.

When I go back and read my journals or fiction, I am always surprised. I may not remember having those thoughts, but they still exist and I know they are mine, and it's all part of making sense of who I am.

One of my rules is: Never listen to your old stuff.

Songwriting is like editing. You write down all this stuff - all this bad, stupid stuff - and then you have to get rid of everything except the very best.

I am not a librarian of my own work. It's a good thing not to be too involved with what you have done.

The only time you actually are a spectator of your own work is the day you read the script.

Once you've finished typing and moving text around and everything else, you have to leave it alone for a while. You do that to see if it stands up, to see if all the loose edges have been trimmed, if it makes sense, if it's consistent, what shape it really has. You can't tell that while you're working on it.

When you're editing, you want to be the perfect appreciator, not another writer.

I was always an outsider, always standing outside, observing and trying to figure things out. Which is exactly what you need to do as a writer, I suppose.

I'd be lying if I didn't say there were days when I went back and said, 'I wish I'd done this. I should have done that. I handled this the wrong way.' But it's always in the motivation of getting better. I've never once looked in the mirror and said, 'Oh boy, can't do this one.'

Read over your compositions, and when you meet a passage which you think is particularly fine, strike it out.

The past has nothing more to teach us. Then why not let it be …. We must look ahead …. Unless we learn to forget, we will be turned into a pillar of salt.

You have to be somewhat ruthless with your work. You have to let things go. Even your favourite little part might not work in the end.

I can't dwell on past mistakes.

I try not to be super self-referential about my work because it becomes like navel gazing at a certain point.

How do I feel when I look back at prior work? Hmmm. I think, 'I tried to do the best I could do. It's not perfect. It will never be perfect.' And then I think, 'I want to try again.'

You get so close to your own music that you can't see the beauty in it. I had to learn to let go. It's good to be less precious.

When a writer gets a second chance to look back on something, it's a great opportunity to say, 'Hey, this is really good, but we can do it even better.'

I will not become analytical about my work.

The one thing you don't want to do is go off and keep rewriting. If something's not quite right, it's often about modulating what's already there.