“Every word a woman writes changes the story of the world, revises the official version.”

“There would seem to be four stages in the composition of a story. First comes the germ of the story, then a period of more or less conscious meditation, then the first draft, and finally the revision, which may be simply ‘pencil work’ as John O’Hara calls it — that is, minor changes in wording — or may lead to writing several drafts and what amounts to a new work.”

“First drafts are for learning what your novel or story is about. Revision is working with that knowledge to enlarge & enhance an idea, to reform it . . . Revision is one of the true pleasures of writing.”

“When you write, you are telling a story...to yourself. When you revise, you are telling a story to yourself...over and over again.”

“Long-standing togetherness writes permanent changes into a brain's open book. In a relationship, one mind revises another; one heart changes its partner. (144)”

“Everyone’s got a version of the same story, or maybe there’s no such thing as the same story; it’s a different story every time.”