Copyediting Quotes

“Good first impressions....are good for business.”
― CS-Edit

“Though I believe it's beyond the power of any mortal to completely relieve my prose of typos.”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Rithmatist

“When I started as a journalist the first company I worked for had an old newspaper man called Harold who ruled the newsroom. He was called chief sub-editor – the ‘sub’ is the person who fixes your mistakes before they go into the newspaper or magazine – although it was inconceivable that anyone could have worked under him.
Every morning he would arrive at 4 am and edit all the copy, looking for these mistakes, and a thousand more that he had internalised in the 50 years to that date. If you made unnecessary errors, he’d call you in to his cubbyhole and shout at you in front of your mates, while you stared at his one remaining front tooth as it wobbled precariously.”
― Tim Phillips, Talk Normal: Stop the Business Speak, Jargon and Waffle

“Copyediting shows the choice and policy of a copy editor; it can change the context of original writing; it represses the neutrality and writing style of a writer.”
― Ehsan Sehgal