Patricia Highsmith Quotes

Night time really is the best time to work. All the ideas are there to be yours because everyone is asleep.

I'm very easily distracted unless I have music on. Listening to music while I brainstorm makes me think of scenes that would fit the mood of the music I'm playing.

Although I've made notes for things and even written synopses sitting in trains or on park benches, for the complete composition of things I need absolute solitude, preferably an empty house.

I'm most happy when I am writing at night, because I need space and time to write.

Writing is a very lonely occupation. To write you need to concentrate, to concentrate you need to lock yourself away. No distractions; you want your stream of thought uninterrupted.

Okay, everyone please be completely quiet, because I can literally hear a whisper, and it’ll throw off my stream of consciousness, and when I get my stream of consciousness going that’s when I give the best, illest quotes. Literally, a whisper can throw it off.

I'm a long distance runner, and I get my best ideas when I'm out running. It also helps that I can't write it down immediately - if you hold onto an idea, other things will stick on it.

I don't generally listen to music while working, but sometimes music can help me get past minor writer's block.

Just keep thinking about the good side of ADD - the creativity and the originality it can stimulate.

I have my best ideas when I am alone.

When I'm writing I just think there's only the page and me and nobody else.

I am in total silence when I write - I don't even like the sound of the dryer going - I like the quiet.

I need complete silence when I write.

I try to stay focused on my creativity.

It is well to be alone. It fertilizes the creative impulse.

I'm a songwriter. I need silence to hear the melodies, so I don't fill the days with a lot of sound.

I don't have many friends. It's not because I'm a misanthrope. It's because I'm reserved. I'm self-contained. I get all my adventures in my head when I'm writing my books.

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.

You want to read a book? That requires introspection. It requires time away from people and time away from the constant need to communicate and to connect.

I don't really listen to music when I work. I really have to focus on one thing at a time. I like a lot of quiet and peace when I'm working or when I'm thinking or when I'm reading.

Silence and solitude are more distracting to me than chatter and commotion.

I write best late at night, when everyone in the house has gone to bed. There's something magical about that late night silence that appeals to me.

When I write I find a quiet place.

Ideas aren't magical; the only tricky part is holding on to one long enough to get it written down.