William Morris Quotes

I listen to music constantly while writing.

I don't think you can read poetry while you're watching television very well.

A lot of painters listen to music, I think, while they paint. But I hate to do that. It's a horror. I can't really listen to the music. I'm not really concentrating on it, and I'm not really concentrating on the painting.

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.'

Of course, every artist has 'minor works' that they do, but I don't think I have any 'minor disciplines.' Each discipline I approach as a major undertaking that I put my whole self into.

I do believe everyone on this earth is an artist - some people more than others. But I do believe we are all artists in a certain way. We all have unique abilities. There are people who are meant to make it their life, and that is a different kind of person who would choose to be on that path.

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

I need to have something else going on. I'm able to write a lot if I have an episode of 'Friday Night Lights' going on my computer.

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.

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

Any artist that's involved in their work is inevitably going to have a focus in what they do.

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.

When I was younger, I was able to write with music playing in the background, but these days, I can't. I find it distracting. Even when the music is just instrumental or has lyrics in a language I don't understand, the clash between the voices in my head and the song can be very disorienting.

I work better when I'm juggling projects. Nothing worse than watching someone really embrace what they're doing if they love it too much.

I've tried writing with music on, but I find it distracting.

All my collaborators unilaterally said that I need to just stay on one idea for longer. And of course I understand that. I like to switch gears a lot, and I like this kind of sloppy attitude.

I can multitask very well. But I know exactly when to block off anything coming in from the outside and just stay focused on the film.

Art has something to do with the arrest of attention in the midst of distraction.

I think that art has something to do with an arrest of attention in the midst of distraction.

All men are creative but few are artists.

Normal people do not create art.

I'm a highly, highly, highly creative human being. I write music all the time. I write scripts constantly. I run my own production company. I'm also a very determined businesswoman. I've a town to deal with. I've got a lot of things to do and I don't have time to be classified as difficult, and I don't have time to care.

As children, we come into the world with a natural desire to both speak and draw. Society makes sure that we learn language properly, right from the beginning, but art is treated as a gift of innate genius, something we either have or don't.

Everybody can draw, in my estimation. If you give a man 50 years, he'll come up with the Mona Lisa.

The writing doesn't distract me while I'm drawing and vice versa. I can devote my full attention to each.