Peter Matthiessen Quotes

When I'm in my groove there is no thinking. Everything just happens.

There is a part of your brain that has to stop when you're acting. You have to be in the moment and dare to fly. Words can't be on your mind.

When I feel like I'm doing my best work, there is a bit of a freedom, a bit of flight that you're not so much losing yourself but you're sort of in the zone.

The best stuff - the most interesting stuff - usually happens when I allow myself to be in the moment and working from that space.

When I model I pretty much go blank. You can't think too much or it doesn't work.

In any sport, you're at your best when you're playing without thinking too much.

When we're playing, when we're really, really going... you're just in the moment. You're not thinking about yesterday, tomorrow, or anything else. The brain gets out of the way. Your body just does what it knows how to do, and it's just... it's like a religion.

When you're working well, you don't do research. Whatever you need comes to you.

When I play, I'm so in the moment that I can't really remember what happened afterwards. It's a rare experience for a thinking person like me.

During the songs, you transcend yourself. The best way to be in the performance is to be without pause and be essentially in the moment, in that moment of expression.

I just play, that's all. When I'm in the field, I always connect with what I'm doing. I can't explain it. I can't control it. It just happens.

As an athlete there are times in your career where, during a game, any decision you make seems to be the right one. The bowler bowls where you want, you don't have to think and you are so 'in the zone' that you are not aware of anything else around you.

For me, the whole idea of performance is not being self-aware, and then sort of just experiencing.

A lot of times, my best games are when I'm not even thinking.

I have never had time for the idea of searching. Whenever I wanted to express something, I did so without thinking of the past or the future.

I guess the way I describe it is when basketball players talk about being in the zone and they feel like they can't miss. That's the way a running back feels when the game is in slow-motion. It feels like every cut is right, every run is going to be at least 10 yards. You see what the defense is doing. You know what they're trying to do to you. It's awesome.

There are moments when you get out of your own head and you exist in the moment, and that can be good acting.

Peak performance is meditation in motion.

It happens so quickly it seems like it's coming from somewhere else. It's not. It just means that you're in sync with yourself.

I can disappear into things very easily. But with acting, you have to be in the moment, and it gives me this incredibly fulfilling emotion: being really present.

As always, with acting, you can't be too self-conscious. You shouldn't care about what people are thinking about you at the time because they're not caring about you, they're caring about the character.

A lot of exercise is mindless; you can have music or the radio on and not be aware. But if you're aware in anything you do - and it doesn't have to be yoga - it changes you. Being present changes you.

But if you can find that spot - I suppose it's like running - I used to be a swimmer and swim laps, and you just have to be there with what you're doing.

You lose your habitual behavior, which allowed you to sort of zone out. You have to be here, you have to be now, you have to be present.

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.