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1 " Edit your manuscript until your fingers bleed and you have memorized every last word. Then, when you are certain you are on the verge of insanity...edit one more time! "
― C.K. Webb
2 " Remember, it is no sign of weakness or defeat that your manuscript ends up in need of major surgery. This is a common occurrence in all writing, and among the best writers. "
― William Strunk Jr.
3 " My congratulations to you, sir. Your manuscript is both good and original; but the part that is good is not original, and the part that is original is not good. "
― Samuel Johnson
4 " When you print out your manuscript and read it, marking up with a pen, it sometimes feels like a criminal returning to the scene of a crime. "
― Don Roff
5 " All great books contain boring portions, and all great lives have contained uninteresting stretches. Imagine a modern American publisher confronted with the Old Testament as a new manuscript submitted to him for the first time. It is not difficult to think what his comments would be, for example, on the genealogies. 'My dear sir,' he would say, 'this chapter lacks pep; you can't expect your reader to be interested in a mere string of proper names of persons about whom you tell so little. You have begun your story, I admit, in fine style, and at first I was very favourably impressed, but you have altogether too much wish to tell it all. Pick out the highlights, take out the superfluous matter, and bring me back your manuscript when you have reduced it to a reasonable length.' So the modern publisher would speak, knowing the modern reader's fear of boredom. "
― Bertrand Russell , The Conquest of Happiness
