Mordecai Richler Quotes

The one ironclad rule is that I have to try. I have to walk into my writing room and pick up my pen every weekday morning.

I've always prided myself on my discipline as a writer. I do it like a job. I get up in the morning and go to my desk.

When I first starting writing, and no one was paying me, in order to feel like I had a real job, I would get out of bed, put on a jacket and tie every morning, and sit down at my desk.

I do Yoga. I'd like to say I do it every morning, but I don't, I just don't have the time.

I used to write when I was in the mood or felt inspired. Anymore, I write whether I feel inspired or not. It's a discipline. So that's definitely different. It's part of maturing as a person and as a professional.

I get up at 4:30 in the morning, seven days a week, no matter where I am in the world.

When I was younger, I just put off the writing until later in the day, but now I write early every morning to get it done. I can only write for a few hours at a time; after that, my attention fades.

I get up every morning early, when the sky is red, and write for 10 hours.

I jog in the morning and then write for about two hours. There are times when I'm really excited and can't wait to get back to it. But there are days when I don't know what's coming next, and I really have to force it.

I get started at 5:30 in the morning and write till 10 A.M. Then I hike six or seven miles before going back to work.

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.

I'm a big believer in regularity. My father taught me that. Get up early, get your work done, and that's, what, your highest level of energy before lunch.

You have to train yourself, think, contemplate, and work on your craft every day.

I get up in the morning and I go to practice like everyone else.

Your actions become your habits. Don't let yourself make a pattern of slipups or they'll become habits!

Habits eat good intentions for breakfast.

A career must be husbanded. Care must be taken. Everyday must bring some small bit of progress. How would an artist with any self-worth act? Act that way.

Habits are where our lives and careers and bodies are made.

A typical workday for me is getting up at about 5:00, 5:15 in the morning, getting some coffee or tea as quickly as possible, and then getting to my desk. And ideally, I'll start writing around 5:30, 5:45, and I'll write for three, four hours, and then I'll take a break, and read over what I write. Maybe about lunchtime, I'll go exercise or get out into the day. Then I'll either read over what I wrote the day before and quit work around 3:00 or 4:00 in the afternoon and spend some time with my kids.

Just write, get better, keep writing, keep getting better. It's the only thing you can control.

I'm a workmanlike writer. I show up every day and treat it like a job. The old rule that writing is like any other job, the first rule is that you must show up. I'm at the keyboard from 9 to 4 every day.

People imagine that there are rituals, like lighting candles or sacrificing chickens. They really just want to know what the magic formula is for writing. I inevitably disappoint them by saying you just put your butt in the chair, and you write 500 words a day, and then you get up and repeat it the next morning.

It is easier to prevent bad habits than to break them.

What you do on the court, off the court, in the classroom, it's all the same. Your habits, the way you treat class, your relationships - it's all the same. Do it right or don't do it.

Acting like an adult and being professional on set and getting my work done has just been a lifestyle for me. It's not something I have to try hard to do, necessarily.