Henri Cartier-Bresson Quotes

Thinking should be done beforehand and afterwards - never while actually taking a photograph.

I tend to over-prepare my shot lists.

I think it's important to know what you're going to do with the ball before it comes to you. So you're always thinking before hand and when the ball comes to you to can make the pass straight away.

I am kept awake by the list of possibilities for shooting more photos and deciding what I must prioritise next.

I think if you want to do a thing properly you have to take a lot of care. I've always found it's easier to draw comics if you know clearly in your head what you're drawing, rather than if you try and make it up as you go along.

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

I know I like to get in the zone, maybe stick on my headphones and listen to music. It helps me concentrate and go over what we've talked about in the team meetings, so I can visualise what's ahead.

don't stop to think of the words when you do stop, just stop to think of the picture better-and let your mind off yourself in this work.

Every man whose business it is to think knows that he must for part of the day create about himself a pool of silence.

The more you prepare beforehand, the more relaxed and creative and effective you’ll be when it counts.

Don't dissipate your powers; strive to concentrate them. Genius thinks it can do whatever it sees others doing, but it will surely repent of every ill-judged outlay.

I love to dream, but I never try to dream and think at the same time.

Figure out where you're going before you go there: he was told that a long time ago.

I am a very good archer. I use archery as my way of meditation. I cannot sit down and just meditate in the classical sense. I am very active. So, I use archery. I have my bow, my arrow and I use this tension and relaxation in the second after throwing the arrow. And it is my way to meditate and this is the only thing that clears my mind. When I do archery, I am totally there with my bow, my target, my arrow, and I don't think, I am communion with the universe.

I'm the kind of person who likes to focus on one thing at a time. I'll focus on my skiing and then when I get to the bottom of my run and the cameras are on me, I'll focus on what I need to say, and then I'll focus that night on recovering and getting ready for the next day.

If you're doing an indie and you have time, sometimes you can do take after take after take, but if you're working in television on that filming schedule, you don't always have the time to do that. You learn very quickly, I think, how essential it is to come in with the strongest choice that you have.

I've tried to be totally present, so that when I'm finished with a piece of work, I'm finished. ... The work, once completed, does not need me. The work I'm working on needs my total concentration. The one that's finished doesn't belong to me anymore. It belongs to itself.

What you focus on grows, what you think about expands, and what you dwell upon determines your destiny.

If you think of a school drawing while you work, your drawing will look like one.

When we sit down each day and do our work, power concentrates around us... Ideas come. Insights accrete.

The only adequate preparation for tomorrow is the right use of today.

I love silence. And one of the paradoxes about the way I live and also about my work is that definitely one of the reasons I went into music, and especially into composing is that I love setting up an environment where I can be by myself for long periods of time and have everything as quiet as possible, either to think about sound, or to think about ideas, or just to focus on things that are important to me.

Think first. Talk less. Start today.

I try to clear my mind of everything, I try to think of nothing. I just let my body act, the body can take control and do what it's trained to do.

Concentration is that ability to not think about anything.