Demand Quote by John Updike

I taught everyone a very bad lesson at my publisher because they actually gave me deadlines this time and I'm now meeting them. I…

— Nathan Englander

I've done as many as 20 or 30 drafts of a story. Never less than 10 or 12 drafts.

— Raymond Carver

I write a ridiculous number of drafts. The characters change and grow through the drafting, and my understanding of them deepens. Creating characters in…

— Robert Boswell

I generally write a first draft that's pretty lean. Just get the story down.

— Nora Roberts

I see myself as a first-draft writer, so when I sit down to write something, the first draft is usually pretty close to the…

— Noah Hawley

Writing is so hard.... The first draft writing is so hard that sometimes in the beginning, before the work itself takes over, carrying you…

— Sophy Burnham

I think I got spoiled and that writing a short story and getting it published, or writing a novel and getting it published, you…

— John Sayles

The first draft is for YOU, the writer; the second and subsequent drafts are for the reader. Trying to do both things at once…

— Karen Karbo

I think people feel for a long time that they ought to know how to write a novel in two drafts.

— Alice Mattison

It can take years. With the first draft, I just write everything. With the second draft, it becomes so depressing for me, because I…

— David Sedaris

I write by hand in my notebooks and number the drafts, so I know how crazy I can get with this. Some writers, like…

— Peter Orner

I write to find out what the story means to me, that is what I try to do especially with the first draft.

— Wally Lamb