Writing = rewriting

"I'm not a very good writer, but I'm an excellent rewriter."  ~James Michener

"The time to begin writing an article is when you have finished it to your satisfaction.  By that time you begin to clearly and logically perceive what it is you really want to say." ~Mark Twain

"The wastebasket is a writer's best friend."  ~Isaac Bashevis Singer 

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

"The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in, shockproof shit detector.  This is the writer's radar and all great writers have had it."  ~Ernest Hemingway
 

"Write your first draft with your heart.  Re-write with your head."  ~From the movie Finding Forrester
 

"Sleep on your writing; take a walk over it; scrutinize it of a morning; review it of an afternoon; digest it after a meal; let it sleep in your drawer a twelvemonth; never venture a whisper about it to your friend, if he be an author especially."  ~A. Bronson Alcott


"Sit down, and put down everything that comes into your head and then you're a writer.  But an author is one who can judge his own stuff's worth, without pity, and destroy most of it."  ~Colette, Casual Chance
 

"Proofread carefully to see if you any words out."  ~Author Unknown