Duke Ellington Quotes

I would never finish a painting if I didn't have a deadline.

It's very easy to fool yourself that you're working, you know, when you're really not working very hard. I mean, I'm very lazy. So for me, I would always have an excuse, you know, to go - quit early, go to a museum, you know. So I do everything I can to make myself remember this is a job. I keep a schedule.

I love a daily deadline.

I have a terrible work ethic. The best way for me to do anything in life is for someone to say, 'You need to do this by this time, or you're in trouble'.

Momentum is a fragile force. Its worst enemy: procrastination. Its best friend: a deadline (think Election Day). Implication no. 1 (and there is no no. 2): Get to work! NOW!

I don't need time. What I need is a deadline!

There's nothing wrong with procrastination. Or is there? I'll leave it to you to decide, but only if you have the time.

A person who has not done one half his day's work by ten o clock, runs a chance of leaving the other half undone.

Having deadlines helps because people are constantly breathing down my neck, and tapping their toes waiting for pages. So I just have to work nine to five. If I didn't have deadlines then I might be more of a golden hour kind of guy, writing from eight to noon and calling it a day, but that's just not the way I work right now.

I have a deadline. I'm glad. I think that will help me get it done.

I can be a lazy slob.

I'm a terrible procrastinator.

I don't have a good work ethic. I have a real casual relationship with hours.

Anyone can do any amount of work, provided it isn't the work he is supposed be doing at that moment.

I waste most of the day, then finally start to write around 3 P.M., totally disgusted with myself for my wasteful nature.

I mean, I can get things done if I need to, but I can really be completely irresponsible and procrastinate until the very, very, very bitter end. In fact, sometimes I work better under pressure.

I always got my work done before playing.

My criticism is too severe sometimes and that is not good. But why don't you start doing your work unless your leader flies into a rage? It is not that you cannot do it but that you don't want to do it.

You can't get anything done hanging out all day long.

Know the true value of time; snatch, seize, and enjoy every moment of it. No idleness, no laziness, no procrastination: never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.

I'm not a particularly disciplined person in terms of my work habits.

I'm a pretty good procrastinator.

A lot of people in our generation like to make excuses about little things that really don't hinder them from doing what they want to. It always comes down to the work ethic.

The rest-seeking procrastinators would generally rather not exert themselves at all, while the fun-task procrastinators enjoy being busy and active all the time but have a hard time starting things that are not so amusing.

I tend to have a hard time working on pieces long before they're due. That's why I think the fact that I write a column is really good for me - the column has to be done, and there's no getting around it.