mike's web log/quotes

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Authors:

I have made this letter longer than usual, only because I have not had the time to make it shorter.
— Blaise Pascal writing | editing

Don't get too attached to your deathless prose, because the editor will change it. A good editor will improve your writing, but any editor will change it. In this respect editors are the same as dogs; when they see something new, they simply must mark it with their own scent.
— Mike Gunderloy editing | writing

An unfortunate side effect of editing is that you'll find it difficult to simply read ever again.
— Judith A. Tarutz editing

If it's crap, just change it.
— Testy Copy Editors writing | editing | advice

Better to insist on clarity of thought and fight bad style, than to fight little battles over bad usage.
— Erin McKean writing | editing

McKean's Law: Any correction of the speech or writing of others will contain at least one grammatical, spelling, or typographical error.
— Erin McKean (also cited as Hartman's Law of Prescriptive Retaliation) language | editing | writing | laws

Editors remain expert on grammar and mechanics, but they offer so much more: analysis, evaluation, imagination, and good judgment applied to information design and management.
— Carolyn Rude editing

Don't send a comma to do a period's job.
— "David" writing | editing

We copy editors are the skeptics, the nay-sayers, the fault-finders. We look at a text expecting to find it defective and are seldom disappointed.
— John McIntyre editing

If proper usage gets in the way, it may have to go. I can't allow what we learned in English composition to disrupt the sound and rhythm of the narrative. It's my attempt to remain invisible, not distract the reader from the story with obvious writing.
— Elmore Leonard writing | editing

The perfect website is exactly one page, the one the visitor wants. But nearly every page on the web is about changing your mind—"There's more over here!"
— Paul Ford computers | writing | editing

I know plenty of copy editors that are fully aware of their role as editors of one text at a time and who don't claim to be guardians of language. They are not peevologists. They don't feel attacked by mistakes and they don't hope to change all language into one register. They respect decorum and they trust that most users do so as well as they do.

The peevologists are looking to change something that will not change. They seek a power that is not theirs and they express frustration based on a sense of entitlement that is not only arrogant but irrational. They hope to change the rotation of the earth and live with constant frustration, throwing stones at every sunrise and sunset.
— Michael Covarrubias (wishydig) language | editing

The whole integrity of editing rests on the editor's ability, when challenged, to give a reasonable and persuasive explanation for every change in the text—and that disagreements over judgments can be worked out collegially, in discussion.
— John McIntyre editing

Encounters with readers are bracing. They remind us that nobody cares how hard we work, what obstacles we face, how good our intentions are. They don't see that, and they don't want to. They see the product. When the product is defective in some way, they conclude that we are dim-witted, lazy, incompetent or all three.
— John McIntyre language | editing

Some innocent people are under the impression that writers prepare their manuscripts correctly, as the articles appear in the paper. Not so, my son. In many cases, if an article should appear as originally written, the author would refuse to father it and never make another effort. But they must be encouraged, and so their productions are trimmed up in the office and made presentable.
— Unknown, as printed in the Arizona Daily Star, May 21, 1882 writing | editing

Correcting one's drinking buddies on grammar is a good way to end up drinking alone.
— "Lancaster" language | editing

Anyone nit-picking enough to write a letter of correction to an editor doubtless deserves the error that provoked it.
— Alvin Toffler writing | editing | language

"Does this break a rule?" is the first question and "Does it work?" is the second question. If "Does it work" outweighs "Does it break a rule," then it's OK to break the rule.
— Merrill Perlman writing | editing | advice

I say: LOOK, if perceived norms did not exist it would not be possible to mark a text as departing from norms, it is not possible for the texture of a text to be different, to be perceived as original, without marking itself off from norms by departing from them.
— Helen DeWitt writing | editing

Dictionaries are the second-to-last refuge of scoundrels.
— Phillip Blanchard writing | editing

Copy editors are the last set of eyes before yours. They are more powerful than proofreaders. They untangle twisted prose. They are surgeons, removing growths of error and irrelevance; they are minimalist chefs, straining fat. [...] The copy editor's job, to the extent possible under deadline, is to slow down, think things through, do the math and ask the irritating question.
— Lawrence Downs editing

The secret to editing your work is simple: you need to become its reader instead of its writer. It turns out that the perfect state of mind to edit your novel is two years after it's published, ten minutes before you go on stage at a literary festival. At that moment every redundant phrase, each show-off, pointless metaphor, all of the pieces of dead wood, stupidity, vanity, and tedium are distressingly obvious to you.
— Zadie Smith writing | editing

Those who do not edit do not understand the keen pleasure that comes from taking up a text and leaving it tighter, clearer, and more accurate.
— John McIntyre editing

Muphrey's Law: a) if you write anything criticizing editing or proofreading, there will be a fault of some kind in what you have written; (b) if an author thanks you in a book for your editing or proofreading, there will be mistakes in the book; (c) the stronger the sentiment expressed in (a) and (b), the greater the fault. (d) any book devoted to editing or style will be internally inconsistent.
— John Bangsund, a variant (one of several) of Hartman's Law of Prescriptive Retaliation laws | editing | writing

Commas are the single worst thing about being an editor. How can such a tiny little piece of punctuation cause so much time-sucking anguish?
— L. J. Sellers editing | writing

Purists will fret, but they enjoy that. It gives their lives meaning.
— John McIntyre language | general | writing | editing

Truth might be stranger than fiction, but it needs a better editor.
— David Benioff general | writing | editing

It rarely takes more than a page to recognize that you're in the presence of someone who can write, but it only takes a sentence to know you're dealing with someone who can't.
— Josh Olson writing | editing

Reading other people's raw copy is like looking at your grandmother naked.
— Rafael Alvarez editing | writing

One indispensable qualification for a professional copy editor is possession of a filthy mind.
— John McIntyre editing

[Strunk and White's] larger rules are something you could never disagree with: "Omit needless words." If you knew which words were needless, you would not need the advice.
— Ben Zimmer writing | editing

Of course, the only practical use of the en dash is as subtle code to communicate, from one publishing professional to another, the abstract concept, "I am copy editor. Hear me roar." Recognizing the en dash can be like a secret handshake to our club.
— "Editor", commenting on the "Subversive Copy Editor" blog editing

One's house style oughtn't to be visible from outer space.
— Benjamin Dreyer editing

It’s [an editor's] job to make writing clear and effective, but I don’t think it’s necessarily our job to hold the line against changing usage or to defend the language from its own users. That is, nobody hired us to be in charge of the English language.
— Jonathon Owen editing | language

Apostrophes are punctuational bandaids for our Rube Goldberg literacy technology, covering some hole that's been found in its representation of speech, and serving as a sort of safety cone to mark the hole to be filled in by a maintenance crew during processing.
— John Lawler language | editing