April Gornik Quotes

I love audio books, and when I paint I'm always listening to a book. I find that my imagination really takes flight in the painting process when I'm listening to audio books.

My imagination functions much better when I don't have to speak to people.

I like to draw late at night when the house is quiet.

I like the busy-ness of office life. What I discovered, to my surprise, is that I love the solitary nature of writing. What happens is that you write when you're ready.

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

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.

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

Going off the grid is always good for me. It's the way that I've started books and finished books and gotten myself out of deadline dooms and things.

You don't have to get things done all the time to be productive.

My favorite days were when I had a cold and could stay home from school and draw all day long.

I usually stay in on Sunday nights. I'm not much of a party person.

When I'm hard at work, when I'm deep in it, there is no other feeling. For me, my work is at all times building a nation out of thin air. It is manning the troops. It is painting a canvas. It is hitting every high note. It is running a marathon. It is being Beyonce. And it is all of those things at the same time.

There's nothing quite like a quiet corner in a coffee shop to gather your thoughts and begin writing.

When I wrote my novel, 'The Ministry of Special Cases,' I couldn't even brush my teeth. I had to write in isolation from everything else. I thought a play would take away from my fiction, but the more projects I work on, the more time I have.

If I have a show at night, I like to spend the whole day alone in silence. I know that might be crazy.

I listen to music constantly while writing.

I love working alone. Crave it, in fact. I feel truly alive then.

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.

I have ADD or something. Even when I am doing something, it's me on the computer, I'm painting and I'm writing music. I have to rotate what I'm doing every 15 minutes.

To draw you must close your eyes and sing.

Twice a year, I take myself off to a self-imposed 'writer's retreat', staying at a small inn or on a friend's farm, where I am all alone and do nothing other than write.

If I know somebody is coming 'round, it is incredibly difficult for me to work because I'm waiting for this interruption - even the children's comings and goings are interruptions. Cake-making is a good way of coming out of that space.

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.

If you get stuck, get away from your desk. Take a walk, take a bath, go to sleep, make a pie, draw, listen to music, meditate, exercise; whatever you do, don't just stick there scowling at the problem. But don't make telephone calls or go to a party; if you do, other people's words will pour in where your lost words should be.

I tend to write in coffee shops and restaurants with friends of mine because if I'm at home, I get distracted by the television or the cats or my husband, or... you know - all of those things that make it easy to procrastinate.