Draft Quotes

I'm against the draft. I believe we should have a professional military; it might be smaller, but it would be more effective. (Jesse Ventura)
All the revision in the world will not save a bad first draft: for the architecture of the thing comes, or fails to come, in the first conception, and revision only affects the detail and ornament, alas! View quote
T. E. Lawrence
The Opera is obviously the first draft of a fine spectacle; it suggests the idea of one. View quote
Jean de La Bruyère
Writing the last page of the first draft is the most enjoyable moment in writing. It's one of the most enjoyable moments in life, period. View quote
Nicholas Sparks
If violence is wrong in America, violence is wrong abroad. If it is wrong to be violent defending black women and black children and black babies and black men, then it is wrong for America to draft us, and make us violent abroad in defense of her. And if it is right for America to draft us, and teach us how to be violent in defense of her, then it is right for you and me to do whatever is necessary to defend our own people right here in this country. View quote
Malcolm X
Write with abandon and no constraints for first draft. Cut brutally and save in separate files on second draft. Add conflict; don't be afraid to make your characters suffer. Read what you love. Write what you love. Love. View quote
Francesca Lia Block
I certainly wanted to write a book that was honest about New Orleans without explaining it to death, so much so that the first draft contained references absolutely incomprehensible to anyone who hasn't lived here for several years. View quote
Poppy Z. Brite
To me the only real star of the movie is the writer. And I work with writers very closely, from outline to first draft and on to the seventh draft, whatever it takes. Then my job is to support the director to make the best movie we can. Some producers try to go past them, but my job is to support them. View quote
Dino De Laurentiis
My mom was sarcastic about men. She would tell me Adam was the rough draft and Eve was the final product. She was a feminist minister, an earth mom who wore a bra only on Sundays. View quote
Daphne Zuniga
When I was still in my psychiatric residency training in New York City, I was subjected to the doctor draft of that time, during the early fifties, at the time of the Korean War. View quote
Robert Jay Lifton
We don't smoke marijuana in Muskogee We don't take our trips on LSD We don't burn our draft cards down on Main Street We like living right and being free. (Merle Haggard)
It takes me six months to do a story. I think it out and then write it sentence by sentence-no first draft. I can't write five words but that I change seven. View quote
Dorothy Parker
Practically all we know is that thousands of native Haitians have been killed by American Marines, and that many of our own gallant men have sacrificed their lives at the behest of an Executive department in order to establish laws drafted by the Assistant Secretary of the Navy. ... I will not empower an Assistant Secretary of the Navy to draft a constitution for helpless neighbors in the West Indies and jam it down their throats at the point of bayonets borne by U. S. Marines. View quote
Warren G. Harding
No passion in the world is equal to the passion to alter someone else's draft. View quote
H. G. Wells
At sixteen I get drafted. When I read the draft notice, I cry. Not because I'm a coward - I'm not afraid of anyone. But I don't want to kill or be killed. View quote
Klaus Kinski
Generally I finish a first draft in 2-6 months, then I set it aside for a while so that when I come back to it I can read it with fresh eyes and figure out how to improve it. View quote
Margaret Haddix
Let me back up a little and tell you why I prefer writing to real life: You can rewrite. A novel, for example, can be cleaned up, altered, trimmed, improved. Life, on the other hand, is one big messy rough draft. View quote
Harlan Coben
Writing a first draft and reminding myself that I'm simply shoveling sand into a box so that later I can build castles. View quote
Shannon Hale
The second draft is on yellow paper, that's when I work on characterizations. The third is pink, I work on story motivations. Then blue, that's where I cut, cut, cut. View quote
Jacqueline Susann
Every first draft is perfect, because all a first draft has to do is exist. View quote
Jane Smiley
The research is the easiest. The outline is the most fun. The first draft is the hardest, because every word of the outline has to be fleshed out. The rewrite is very satisfying. (Ken Follett)
The following year, after I had prepared my draft, the Conference of the Interparliamentary Union at The Hague decided to set up a special commission to study the problem seriously. View quote
Ludwig Quidde
No one uses a ribbon typewriter any more, but your final draft is not the time to try to wring a few more sheets out of your inkjet cartridge. View quote
Lynn Abbey
In the original draft I was 27 and Peter was 55 in the script. That's not the same as a guy in his 40s and a dad in the end of his 70s. It's a different point in both our lives. View quote
Paul Reiser
The Iraq war was fought by one-half of one percent of us. And unless we were part of that small group or had a relative who was, we went about our lives as usual most of the time: no draft, no new taxes, no changes. Not so for the small group who fought the war and their families. View quote
Bob Schieffer