Paul Newman Quotes

My brain is a big cluster of stuff. It moves quickly and loses focus quickly, so I need many projects to keep me stimulated - it's a luxury to be able to do lots of different things: style, write, present, DJ or just consult. It can't be any other way; I think I would shrivel up and fall asleep forever.

I'm astounded by people who can listen to music when they write. I can only assume that they have multi-track brains, while mine is decidedly single.

My concentration span is truly that of a gnat. Some people have this ladder, and that's all there is - the ladder. I have the ladder, too, but there's a building around it with scaffolding, and lots of windows for me to peek into. Then suddenly I'll remember, 'Oh, there's the ladder. I should be concentrating on that.'

To be honest, I don't enjoy watching movies much when I'm working. They tend to fall apart on me a bit.

I never think at all when I write. Nobody can do two things at the same time and do them both well.

I'm very focused when I'm making a movie, but I'm also a fantastic multitasker.

There are different usage patterns - I never do email during the day. I don't multitask well at all. I don't know how to be in a meeting and participate and be on email at the same time. I do see some people do it more effectively. I've never quite figured that out.

I can multitask like crazy. I'm riddled with ADD - a blessing and a curse.

Your mind simply can't focus forward and downward all at the same time.

Acting and recording an album at the same time, that's not my sport. I could write a movie when my attention was paid to that. But I'm good at one thing at a time.

You have to have a brain that works like the spokes of a bicycle. You've got to be able to do 18 things at once.

I have a short attention span, so when one book isn't working out, I just work on another.

You wouldn't read 'Anna Karenina' and try to work on the computer at the same time, would you?

If you are feeling light, and you are not feeling tired in your body, you can obviously concentrate more.

If I think of something, half-way into it, I can throw it in there and it won't be so far down the line that it would be insignificant. However, I also like to completely focus on something for a certain period of time, and then be able to move on to something else.

It's a skill that people are born with. Either you're a focuser or you're a multitasky person. I am a full-focus person.

Pat Moynihan could write books with one hand and legislate with the other. I can't; I have a short attention span. The slightest distraction would take me away from writing.

I find it so easy to get distracted - I try not to do more than one thing at any one time.

I'll read anything. In fact, I'll read while I'm doing other things, which is not a good idea.

I listen to music constantly while writing.

I find that I can't work and listen to radio - either I find I don't like it and it distracts me, or I do like it and I want to listen to it.

We say that children are bad at paying attention, but we really mean that they're bad at not paying attention - they easily get distracted by anything interesting.

No one would choose to be jerked randomly off task again and again until you have half a dozen things you're trying to get done, all at the same time.

I just want to focus on one thing at a time.

You can't work on 15 problems at the same time.