Allison Tolman Quotes

There's nothing quite like a quiet corner in a coffee shop to gather your thoughts and begin writing.

I began by working in a study in an attic, but for many years, I've used a small room in a library. What matters to me isn't decor or comfort but only quiet. I need to hear the rhythms of phrases, the music of sentences. Any place that allows me to do that is good enough.

Unfortunately, poetry is not born in noise, in crowds, or on a bus. There have to be four walls and the certainty that the telephone will not ring. That's what writing is all about.

Everything has to be clean and orderly when I sit down to write. I have candles going, and small objects that remind me of what I am working on, or bring me into the world of the character.

I need complete silence when I write.

I need to write in a small room - the smaller the better. I can't write in a big room where someone might sneak up behind my back.

Although I've made notes for things and even written synopses sitting in trains or on park benches, for the complete composition of things I need absolute solitude, preferably an empty house.

I need quiet and solitude to work. Darkness is best. If I am wide awake, I can't write.

Protect the time and space in which you write. Keep everybody away from it, even the people who are most important to you.

I could type in a closet and be fine. It's just a matter of cocooning myself. Just me and the story.

The problem with too beautiful a view is that it's alright for the mulling stage. But for the writing stage, you want to be somewhere without a view, especially if it is very different from what you're writing.

I probably write best in my office, which is an extra bedroom in my house.

When I write, I don't like to be around any humans.

I've tried everywhere, but my garden shed is the most effective place to write.

I like semi-torn-down places where I could get nestled in and get something done without anyone bothering me.

A creation of importance can only be produced when its author isolates himself, it is a child of solitude.

I try to stay focused on my creativity.

It's really weird because my house is very ornate, but my writing lair is very, very blank. It's white, the furniture is white. It gives me nothing to look at, so I just have to concentrate!

I don't listen to music when I'm writing, but I often do when I'm reworking, editing or when I need to relax.

Some writers like to work in other places like coffee shops, but I can't - I'd end up people-watching. And if I were at a bookstore, I'd be reading. Sometimes I have some music on, but usually I like it quiet.

Night time really is the best time to work. All the ideas are there to be yours because everyone is asleep.

I'm very easily distracted unless I have music on. Listening to music while I brainstorm makes me think of scenes that would fit the mood of the music I'm playing.

I have a very beautiful room that in my house that we bought in Princeton. It's glass on three sides, and you'd think that's the perfect place to write. Somehow in that nice room I feel too exposed, and I can notice I'm too distracted by things going on, so I end up writing in a not-very-nice office bedroom.

For a writer, for the solitude to write, you don't need a room of your own, you need a house.

I learn my lines while on the golf course. I try to do two or three things at once. I have ideas for books all the time, I have ideas for paintings all the time, and I write them all down. I take my sketchpad and my iPad, which I design on, and I do sit down and do specific tasks at specific times.