Rollo May Quotes

Part of my function as a writer is to dream awake. And that usually happens. If I sit down to write in the morning, in the beginning of that writing session and the ending of that session, I'm aware that I'm writing. I'm aware of my surroundings. It's like shallow sleep on both ends, when you go to bed and when you wake up. But in the middle, the world is gone and I'm able to see better.

When I am writing best, I really am lost in my world. I lose track of the outside world. I have a difficult time balancing between my real world and the artificial world.

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

If I were to try and find a unifying emotion that kept me calm and focused while I was dancing or writing or solving a math problem, I think the one unifying thing about all those that keeps my interest is creativity.

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.

Creation is in part merely the business of forgoing the great and small distractions.

The concentration of a small child at play is analogous to the concentration of the artist of any discipline. In real play, which is real concentration, the child is not only outside time, he is outside himself.

Creativity arises out of the state of thoughtless presence in which you are much more awake than when you are engrossed in thinking.

Creative people are all there, totally immersed, fascinated and absorbed in the present, in the current situation, in the here-now, with the matter-in-hand.

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

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.

No pen, no ink, no table, no room, no time, no quiet, no inclination.

When I write, I wear earplugs. I don't want to be self-conscious. I don't want to be thinking about the fact that I'm thinking about it. I just want to be in it. It's one element of hypnosis.

When you're writing fiction or poetry... it really comes down to this: indifference to everything except what you're doing... A young writer could do worse than follow the advice given in those lines.

To draw you must close your eyes and sing.

Writing is a very focused form of meditation. Just as good as sitting in a lotus position.

I never look at other people's work. My mind has to be completely focused on my own illusions.

As I get older, I become more imaginative and feel like I have maybe a shorter time to get a lot of things going on in my mind done.

I try to stay focused on my creativity.

When I play, I become entirely absorbed in the game. It may be a form of concentration.

For a long time, I would write without music, because I thought it was distracting until I appreciated that it actually unlocks a certain unconscious productivity vault in my mind.

You can write any time people will leave you alone and not interrupt you. Or, rather, you can if you will be ruthless enough about it. But the best writing is certainly when you are in love.

Sometimes I write with music on, and if I'm in a good flow, I don't even hear it.

I like to stay busy, I like to stay focused, and I like to stay creative. Without being creative I'd be dead.

I may be more passionate about my comedy because that's the one place where I feel comfortable - because I'm in the now. Performing is the only time of the day when I have to really force every ounce of concentration into whatever's happening in that moment.