Protection From Editors/Quotes

"Speaking as a freelancer, some of us have really boneheaded ideas that need to be challenged and changed. One writer, for instance, wanted there to be 3,000 Solars, 3,000 Lunars, 1,000 Sidereals and over a million [Dragon-Blooded], all destroyed in the Three Spheres Cataclysm at the end of the Primordial War. The remaining Celestials in Creation wandered around acting like, quote, "Billy Badass," oblivious to the fact that they'd be paste next to the Primordials.

"He needed to be reminded that the name of the game is Exalted, not You're a Useless Bitch Next to the Yozis."

—Neall Raemonn Price

"It's my job to find potential in things that might not on the surface seem to have any, and it is their job to be skeptical and question all ideas to make sure they measure up."

—Mark Rosewater

"3) When I'm Famous, I Won't Have to Deal with Editors

This doesn't happen often. If you are lucky, it will never happen to you."

—"Common Misconceptions About Editors" by David Kudler

"Before the public sees any syndicated cartoons, they're first screened by an editor or two for potential problems. And editors, I'm convinced, have saved my career many times by their decisions not to publish certain cartoons."

—Gary Larson

"[Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots] is in dire need of an editor, preferably one armed with waders and pruning shears.

—Zero Punctuation's review of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.

Totalitarian? The BBC? Seriously? The other day I had to BEG a meeting with [[[BBC 1]] controller] Jay Hunt, just so I could explain what we're spending all her money on in Doctor Who. She said it all sounded very nice and sent me off to play.

That's more than creative freedom, that's being turned loose in the wild. Frankly, I'm scared and want someone to tell me what to do. I might even have an epiphany.

—Steven Moffat tells it.

"It's an old story: a visionary director tired of constantly having to justify his mad-prophet vision to buttoned-down bean counters with calculators for hearts so he sets up shop on his own. It's gonna be different, this time, see? This time, the inmates will be Running the Asylum and making mad moolah in the process. Three months later, the now penniless, despondent visionary comes crawling back to his old studio, begging for any job, no matter how dispiriting or humiliating: assistant director on a Wallace Beery wrestling movie, production assistant on a Hercules flick. It doesn't matter. He'll do anything just to get back in the game. Frank Capra, Preston Sturges, Coppola: all fell into ruin when they tried to buck the system."

"It's telling that when a filmmaker succeeds in running his own studio, it's because he's learned to let his inner businessman veto his inner artiste. Coppola ran Zoetrope with his heart. It nearly destroyed him. Steven Spielberg runs DreamWorks with his brain, a decision that leads to much healthier returns on investment."

—Nathan Rabin, My Year Of Flops #95: One From The Heart

"I discovered that editing is really another word for someone ruthlessly tearing apart your work with a big smile, all the while telling you that it will make the book so much better. And it did, though it felt like splinters of hot bamboo being driven into my tender eyeballs."

—Christopher Paolini, on the editing of Eragon

"However, as most any writer will tell you, just because you spent ten days slaving over a certain scene is no reason to keep it in the final manuscript. The only question that matters is whether the scene contributes to the book as a whole. If not, then it must go."

—Christopher Paolini, on the editing of Brisingr

"How this ever made it past the editors, I may never know!"

—Linkara, on the All-Star Batman & Robin comic series.

Trey Parker: I think you get to a certain age maybe where you just believe that you are as great as everyone tells you, and you don't need to fix your story, you don't need an editor and you don't need to go through all the toil on a script that you went through originally because it's just obvious that those scripts for the first three are so awful. And that's the only problem with the new shows is that they're terrible scripts. And because he was George Lucas he didn't have anyone say "This is a terrible script, you have to fix it before we'll shoot it", you just a studio going "Go, go, go, make it!".
Matt Stone: Or maybe someone did, and he was like "Get out of here!" Who knows? You need people in your life as somebody who does comedy, and even Star Wars. You need someone to say "No, that's not very good", someone who's gonna be honest with you. And probably George Lucas was in a big room of liars, with everyone sitting there, going "This is great, George!"

Trey Parker: Cause there's no way that anyone with half a brain could have read that script and thought it was good. Any one of them, I mean, they're awful.

—Trey Parker and Matt Stone on George Lucas retroactively editing the Star Wars trilogy.

"I have a very good track record when it comes to Magic design. I have designed numerous very popular sets. I have designed a lot of successful cards and mechanics. I have probably been responsible for more innovations in Magic design than any other designer in history. You know one of the worst things R&D could probably do—just let me do whatever I want."

Rikk(impersonating Anakin): "I don't like sand, heh-heh. It's coarse and rough and irritating and it gets heh-heh evvverywhere. Here everything is soft and smooth, wink wink, nudge nudge, knowhuddimean, knowhuddimean?"

Rumy: It was excruciating!

Ally: But see, I'd think you'd be into it, cause y'know, star-crossed lovers.

Rumy: I love a good romance! But that was...

Ally: A stalker and her enabler?

Rumy: Yes, yes! Lucas makes me afraid. He's what happens when artists stop seeking criticism. Promise me you'll tell me when my own work is bad?

—T. Campbell's Fans, on "Star Wars Episode II"

"No one edits. I edit. I refuse to be edited."

—Harold Bloom