Esa-Pekka Salonen Quotes

My dad gave me this advice: 'Make what you want to do for the rest of your life the first thing you do in the day and then worry about hanging out with friends.'

I don't ever take lunch. If I were to go to lunch I would waste four hours.

You have to protect your writing time. You have to protect it to the death.

I'm trying to conduct only five months a year, and the rest will be composing time. I'm trying to spend as much as I can out of those months here in L.A., because for creative work, this is a fantastic place.

Slowing down doesn't mean accomplishing less; it means cutting out counterproductive distractions and the perception of being rushed.

Time is the guy at the amusement park who paints shirts with an airbrush. He sprays out the color in a fine mist until it's just lonely particles floating in the air, waiting to be plastered in place. And what comes of it all, the design on the shirt at the end of the day, usually isn't much to see. I suspect that whoever he is, wakes up in the morning and wonders what he ever saw in it.

Doing more things faster is no substitute for doing the right things.

Devoting a little of yourself to everything means committing a great deal of yourself to nothing.

If you don't have time, the truth is, you don't have priorities. Think harder; don't work harder.

There is time to play and then there are times to work hard and get my fans an album.

You’ve gotta keep control of your time, and you can’t unless you say no. You can’t let people set your agenda in life.

I pride myself on finding balance. I love making music and I love raising my boys - I find time to make both a priority.

If I have three ideas and I'm working on one more than the others, that sort of tells me that I should work on that one.

One had better not rush, otherwise dung comes out rather than creative work.

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

I just work hard and do things as they come along. But it has been a challenge to learn that I have to say 'no' to things and to know how and what to prioritize.

First things first, second things never.

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.

The art of doing science is doing the important things first.

My message to the ladies would be, you can do all of the things, but not all of them at the same time.

There is time enough for everything, in the course of the day, if you do but one thing at once; but there is not time enough in the year, if you will do two things at a time.

The only way to have time is to shut down and then do what you want to do.

There's a time and place for everything, and my focus is music. So that's what I prefer to spend most of my time doing, and not talk about making music.

I only live in my music, and I have scarcely begun one thing when I start on another. As I am now working, I am often engaged on three or four things at the same time.

I've heard Simon Cowell is awake all through the night... To be honest that is when I get all my work done.