Above all, a query letter is a sales pitch and it is the single most important page an unpublished writer will ever write. It's the first impression and will either open the door or close it. It's that important, so don't mess it up. Mine took 17 drafts and two weeks to write. Nicholas Sparks
I keep the drafts of each poem in color-coded folders. I pick up the folders according to how I feel about that color that day. Rita Dove
This is not a screenplay. I don't do twenty drafts. I'm not going to show this to you until it's published or accepted for publication. You can make whatever suggestions you want, but I probably will ignore them entirely. Robert B. Parker
Architect. One who drafts a plan of your house, and plans a draft of your money. Ambrose Bierce
I would advise any beginning writer to write the first drafts as if no one else will ever read them - without a thought about publication - and only in the last draft to consider how the work will look from the outside. Anne Tyler
The drafts which true genius draws upon posterity, although they may not always be honored so soon as they are due, are sure to be paid with compound interest in the end. Charles Caleb Colton