Diane Mott Davidson Quotes

After a day of writing, I love nothing more than to go into my kitchen and start chopping onions and garlic on the way to cooking an improvised meal with whatever ingredients are on hand. Cooking is the perfect counterpoint to writing. I find it more relaxing than anything else, even naps, walks, or hot baths.

Cooking is the best way to unwind at the end of a long writing day. There's something mindless and hands-on about cooking, which makes it feel like the very opposite of writing, which is heady but inactive.

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 get a lot of the ideas when I'm resting - either when I'm meditating or getting some kind of work done on my back, like physical therapy or acupuncture. That's where I get my best ideas, maybe because I'm balancing my body.

The time to relax is when you don't have time for it.

Usually I can go for three or four weeks and then I start to bake cakes or make jewellery and I think, 'hang on a minute, I'm obviously bored rigid. I need to get back out there.'

I still find it almost impossible to relax for more than one day at a time.

A vacation for me is when I'm home and I'm writing.

We all need to relax more, but I don't find it easy.

Between all four children and my husband, I don't get to do much. But when I am in England, I cook and I garden, and it's much more calming and relaxed.

A lot of people say it's cathartic to cook, and I'm like, 'How is it cathartic washing all these dishes?'

I've been doing some writing, which I find very cathartic and fun.

My ritual is cooking. I find it therapeutic. It comes naturally to me. I can read a recipe and won't have to look at it again.

It's very challenging to get the right balance between relaxing and working.

For me, creating music is just as relaxing as sitting down and doing nothing.

I can't relax. I don't have any hobbies.

I'm a fan of mindfulness, and if colouring in is a way of reaching mindfulness, then I think it's great. But I'm amazed that anyone has the time to do that. I certainly don't.

Baking is therapy.

If I cannot rest and relax, all the work I do is for naught.

Leisure is non-work for the sake of work. Leisure is the time spent recovering from work and in the frenzied but hopeless attempt to forget about work.

I find that if I go on a vacation, it's like that's more stress to me, because I want to get back.

I think the best cure is to stop doing the thing that you think you should be doing and go and have a bit of fun in another medium, maybe other crazy things.

Men, in whatever anxiety they may be, if they are men, sometimes indulge in relaxation.

I love to cook. I spend weekends reading cookbooks - it's really my relaxation.

Who will free me from hurry, flurry, the feeling of a crowd pushing behind me, of being hustled and crushed? How can I regain even for a minute the feeling of ample leisure I had during my early, my creative years? Then I seldom felt fussed, or hurried. There was time for work, for play, for love, the confidence that if a task was not done at the appointed time, I easily could fit it into another hour. I used to take leisure for granted, as I did time itself.