Tom Rachman Quotes

Writing is mainly perspiration, not inspiration.

My creative process involves that old saying: It's 90% perspiration and only 10% inspiration.

The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without work.

The writer's secret is not inspiration - for it is never clear where it comes from - it is his stubbornness, his patience.

Writing, for me at least, takes a lot of concentrated work and effort. It takes dedication and the willingness to do the work even when that feeling of inspiration isn't there at all.

Don't wait for inspiration. It comes while one is working.

Inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us just show up and get to work. If you wait around for the clouds to part and a bolt of lightning to strike you in the brain, you are not going to make an awful lot of work. All the best ideas come out of the process; they come out of the work itself.

Genius begins great works; labor alone finishes them.

Where the spirit does not work with the hand, there is no art.

I know you've heard it a thousand times before. But it's true - hard work pays off. If you want to be good, you have to practice, practice, practice. If you don't love something, then don't do it.

You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.

Inspiration exists, but it has to find us working.

Musical success depends on how much you enjoy it and how much you are willing to put in. Luck must follow, too.

There's nothing more special than intellect and labour that makes painting work. There's no magic there; it's information, and it's work.

Of course everyone has those moments of frustration now and then, when you say, 'I wish I could play well already - or just stop.' But it's too much trouble to stop just for a moment of frustration. It is when you keep going that you make the most progress.

My dad told me, 'If you're going to go out there and play baseball, or you're going to play basketball or football, work hard at it no matter what. I want you to have fun with your buddies, but you have to put in the time because this is your craft.' He didn't just want me to be good. He pushed me to that next level.

All great artists and thinkers are great workers.

You learn to write the same way you learn to play golf... You do it, and keep doing it until you get it right. A lot of people think something mystical happens to you, that maybe the muse kisses you on the ear. But writing isn’t divinely inspired – it’s hard work.

One day work is hard, and another day it is easy; but if I had waited for inspiration I am afraid I should have done nothing. The miner does not sit at the top of the shaft waiting for the coal to come bubbling up to the surface. One must go deep down, and work out every vein carefully.

Without the work, the magic won’t come.

That talk of inspiration is sheer nonsense; there is no such thing. It is a mere matter of craftsmanship.

I don't believe in inspiration. Inspiration is for amateurs. Some of the time you know you're cooking, and the rest of the time, you just do it.

Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.