J. G. Ballard Quotes

When I was younger I used to get my best writing done at night, but now it has to be during the day. I usually finish work at half past seven, then go back to the house to open a bottle of wine, have dinner, and then read or watch television.

I'm a workaholic. I would not pretend to be anything else. I rarely go to bed before one o'clock in the morning. I might kind of have a spa between half-past twelve and one and relax, and that's when I do my thinking, or my non-thinking. That's when I have a bit of space for myself.

I used to start at about 10 at night and work until early morning. My preferred way to work is to start in the early afternoon and work until about 3, go do errands, have dinner, and then write for a few more hours in the evening.

My working day usually lasts from 9 A.M. to 7 P.M., then two hours of viewing time for myself. It's like a religion.

Yeah, don't you take a break?" "I don't have time for breaks." "That's the whole point of a break. When you've got no time, you need a break.

The forty-four-hour week has no charm for me. I'm looking for a forty-hour day.

I get up every day and work in the morning. I have my coffee and get to work. On good days I look up and it's dark outside and the whole day has gone by and I don't know where it's gone. But there's bad days, too. Where I struggle and sweat and a half hour creeps by and I've written three words. And half a day creeps by and I've written a sentence and a half and then I quit for the day and play computer games. You know, sometimes you eat the bear and sometimes the bear eats you. [Laughs]

There comes a moment in the day when you have written your pages in the morning, attended to your correspondence in the afternoon, and have nothing further to do. Then comes that hour when you are bored; that's the time for sex.

If I had nothing to do and I wanted to sit in a dark room and relax, I could at times. But to be busy is very nice. To have things to do and have a schedule.

I work mornings only. I go out to lunch. Afternoons I play with the baby, walk with my husband, or shovel mail.

We were not made by Nature to work, or even to play, from eight o'clock in the morning till midnight. We ought to break our days and our marches into two.

Life is too short to work so hard.

I'm in production year round. I work long hours. I have a dog and a wife. There's not a lot of available time for consuming any culture: T.V., movies, books. When I read, it's generally magazines, newspapers and web sites.

I drop my kid off at school and then race home, and it's a very limited time. I can only do really serious writing for a couple of hours. And then I always go on a walk, I do a one-to-two-hour walk; I don't go running or hard hiking.

Everyone is always telling me that I must be exhausted, but I've learned how to use my time well, and that includes holidays to recharge. I always try to give myself big chunks of time to think about what the next project is going to be.

For me, I have to say that I like to work a lot too, but I like not working better. The perfect scenario is when you just worked and you know something's coming up, then you have four, five, six months off. But you know you're going to have a job later.

I am such that person that, when I'm working, I'm like, 'Oh, what I wouldn't give for a weekend off!' And then, as soon as I have more that 18 hours without anything to do, I start shaking. It's really funny.

I always thought that it's important to have other things, not just work, and I often even suggested my managers take some time off and come back fresh and ready to fight again.

I don't take vacations.

The biggest need that women have is more time. We all want more time in our lives. More time in the morning to get ready. More time in the evening to spend time with our families. All of these things - more time to move up that career path. It's about time.

I hate vacations. If you can build buildings, why sit on the beach?

I don't take time off.

I usually sit down at 8 A.M. and work through to 7 P.M., with breaks that total no more than an hour and a half.

I would go to work from 9 to 6, go home, nap for two hours, then write from 8 to 2 a.m.

I get up around 6:30. I work from about 8:00 to 1:00, take a break for lunch, work again until about 5:00, and then go for a long walk and have dinner. Then, if my wife and I have no previous plans, we decide what to do for the evening.