Does everyone need an editor?

Anne Rice believes she is above editing:

"I have no intention of allowing any editor ever to distort, cut, or otherwise mutilate sentences that I have edited and re-edited, and organized and polished myself. I fought a great battle to achieve a status where I did not have to put up with editors making demands on me, and I will never relinquish that status. For me, novel writing is a virtuoso performance. It is not a collaborative art."

She wrote that in a response to people's critiques of her work on Amazon.com. The criticism was harsh enough that she was moved to answer.

She expanded on that topic to the New York Times:

"People who find fault and problems with my books tend to say, 'She needs an editor,' '' Ms. Rice said. "When a person writes with such care and goes over and over a manuscript and wants every word to be perfect, it's very frustrating.''

She added: "When you take home a CD of Pavarotti or Marilyn Horne, you don't want to hear another voice blended in. I feel the same way about Hemingway. If I read it, I don't want to read a new edited version.''

Link via Bookslut.

>The People Have Spoken, and Rice Takes Offense [The New York Times]
>From the author to some of the negative voices here [Amazon.com]