Noel Coward Quotes

I couldn't understand why my productivity went down when I had deliberately made more time available to write. Then I realized it was because I wasn't flying as much.

Worry destroys the ability to write.

If I have one thing on in a week, I find it very difficult to get back to work that week. I need a lot of dreaming time.

Don't worry about breaks every 20 minutes ruining your focus on a task. Contrary to what I might have guessed, taking regular breaks from mental tasks actually improves your creativity and productivity. Skipping breaks, on the other hand, leads to stress and fatigue.

The bane of Americans is overwork-and the ruin of any work is a divided interest. Concentrate-concentrate. One thing at a time.

When I first started writing, I had a very difficult time switching between projects, but now it's not only second-nature, it's indispensable: If I stall on one project, I can switch to another and stay productive.

Writing responds well to some gentle scheduling. A day job not only promotes solvency, it promotes creativity as well.

I don't drive, so one of my assistants drives me to my writing room, and I have a calendar on the wall telling me how much time I have left, and how far behind I am. I look at it and panic, and decide which scene to work on. And you sit there plonking notes until something makes sense, and you don't think about it any more. Good tunes come when you're not thinking about it.

I have a great drive to make things and sometimes I forget to slow down a little.

I write about two hours a day, and I write in fits and spurts - 45 minutes here, a half-hour there - and when I get stuck, which happens often, I take the dogs for a walk. But during the time when I'm not actually writing, I'm thinking.

I'm guessing the stress of having to write for a deadline can be inspiring. Sometimes, pressure is good.

I'm better when I'm busy. I am happier. I am a bit useless when I'm not busy. I start thinking too much, which is never a good thing. When I'm busy I have a better perspective on what really matters - the priorities.

I think it's important to have as much as a normal life and take the time to get perspective because it only helps your work in the long run.

The basic thing is that I want to do the best work possible, and I can only do that if I'm relaxed and have a lot of energy. And that can only come from taking time off.

People say to me, 'Oh, being a mother must make you a better actor,' and I think, 'Well, I never sleep, I have very little time to think about anything except when I'm actually there.' I wonder whether that makes me a better actor. I think it must on some level.

I haven't written an awful lot recently, but I think I probably will start again very shortly. Being so much on the road, when you have a couple of weeks off, you're likely to avoid sitting at the piano, and taping, and giving yourself more work to do.

'In Praise of Slowness' chronicles the global trend towards deceleration that has come to be known as the Slow Movement. Don't worry, though: it is not a Luddite rant. I love speed. Going fast can be fun, liberating and productive. The problem is that our hunger for speed, for cramming more and more into less and less time, has gone too far.

When I usually go to my studio to work, I start with something that is going to take two minutes just to put some idea down and the next thing I know, ten hours have gone by and my family is screaming at me because they want me to come up to have dinner with them.

I am traveling less in order to be able to write more. I select my travel destinations according to their degree of usefulness to my work.

I have to take time occasionally to get away from the pressures of this business. If I don't, I think I would get stale, and that would show in my music.

I get restless easily so I always want to keep working, but I am trying to pace it as well.

If my mind's not trying to fix something or create something, I don't know what to do. It just throws me off.

I'm not disciplined at all. I barely function. But I get a lot done. I take days off all the time, but when I work, I work very fast and very efficiently. But I'm always having days when I'm feeling a little anxious, and I take a day off. I work in a funny way.

A manuscript under way always gave me something to do; only while enduring the aimlessness between books was I truly glum.

I'm not very good at writing songs when I have a lot of clutter in my mind.