Marguerite Young Quotes

I get up at 4:30 in the morning, seven days a week, no matter where I am in the world.

I can do a book in three months if I spend all day, seven days a week at it and, in fact, I work better that way.

I'm not a person who would get up at 5 A.M. to write, but I could sacrifice my Friday night and just order in dinner, sit at home and get into it.

I sit down religiously every morning, I sit down for eight hours every day - and the sitting down is all.

I am a working person. I always work, study or do research for my novel. I even work on Sunday.

When I'm working on a novel, I work 70-hour weeks.

I can handle a lot of work. I've always been able to. I'm a very focused individual. I come to my studio at about 7:30 in the morning and exit almost 5:00 P.M. In that time, those eight or nine hours, it's kind of laser focus on whatever I'm working on. There aren't really any distractions or anything.

I don't take off as many days as most other producers and songwriters, so I'm working every single day, and I do songs every day. So it's just about finding time, scheduling, getting in and cutting the records. I make it happen and that's the name of the game. It's no excuses - you gotta figure it out.

I have always worked long hours and very hard. It is the way I am. Same as always. Up about seven and get to bed about 12 to 1, something like that.

You don't turn out as many books as I did then by sitting around, being cozy with the family.

I write on a very strict 2-hour-a-day schedule, and I really respond to structure and invented rules. So even if I'm finding out good information on a character, I will stop when I'm set to stop.

There's nothing romantic about my work... I don't believe in inspiration. I believe that you get to your desk, you stay there, you work, you think of nothing else. You write and you write, and in the end, you write something good.

I just get things done instead of talking about getting them done. I don't go out and party. I don't smoke, drink or do drugs and I'm not married, that leaves a lot of time for my work.

I write fifteen hours a day, stopping at Oprah-o'clock.

Believe me, if anybody has a job and starts at 9, there's no reason why they can't get up at 4:30 or five and write for a couple of hours, and give their employers their second-best effort of the day - which is what I did.

If I waited to be inspired to go to the gym, I'd never get there. I schedule my exercise time; I schedule my work time. This is especially important if you have a day job as I did while writing my first seven novels.

Without pressure, I'm not going to wake up every day to go work, or do extra shooting, or lifting.

In my early years, I would be in the studio till 11 P.M. Come home, have bath and dinner, and write music till 2 A.M. I would wake up by 4, sit down to do my music, and be at the studio at sharp 7 A.M.

I don't like to take a lot of time off. It's really not in my DNA.

I'd get out at school at 3:00 P.M., show up to dance practice at 6:30 P.M., practice for three hours till 9:00 P.M., get home at midnight, and try to do whatever homework I could before getting back up for 7:00 A.M. But I did it because I liked dancing, and I loved the music.

I would work until I got stuck, and I would put it down and pick up something else. I might be able to take a 20-minute nap and get to work again. That way, I was able to work about 10 hours a day... It was important to me to work every day. I managed to work on Christmas day, just to be able to say I worked 365 days a year.

Every day I'm not working or writing is a wasted day to me.

In college, my idea of a productive day was to start writing at 7 A.M. and not leave my chair until dinnertime.

I don't drink or party. There's literally no time for that. As soon as I finish a show, I go straight back to the hotel room, do emails, I sleep, that's it.

I tend to have a hard time working on pieces long before they're due. That's why I think the fact that I write a column is really good for me - the column has to be done, and there's no getting around it.