"There is no good writing; there is only good rewriting."
-Gustave Flaubert

"I try to leave out the parts that readers skip."
-Elmore Leonard

"Whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing, obey it--wholeheartedly--and delete it before sending your manuscript to press. Murder your darlings."
-Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch

"We are in the deep cack. It couldn't be worse if was raining arseholes."
-Sergeant Jackrum to troops, Monstrous Regiment, Terry Pratchett