Ray Bradbury Quotes

I write about two hours a day, and I write in fits and spurts - 45 minutes here, a half-hour there - and when I get stuck, which happens often, I take the dogs for a walk. But during the time when I'm not actually writing, I'm thinking.

Your billion-dollar ideas don't show up in the middle of dramatic distraction. They show up when you have the business and personal discipline to make space for your creative mind to flourish.

Writing is challenging work because it's so easy to get consumed with how it's going, what's going to happen to it, who's going to like or not like it. You want to get all of that stuff out of your head and just let the work flow.

Preserving that privacy between a writer and the work is important. You have to shut out all those voices that have reacted to your work.

Your life is too important to give it to distractions.

I think the best advice I got was to not worry about what other people would think while you were working on your first draft. Focus on getting it out of your head. You can always edit the manuscript later.

I can write all the way through the morning, when my mind is clear, and there are no distractions.

No matter what your work today, if it is worth while at all - time to plan it out, time to do it well, and time to finish it, is your day's greatest gift and your greatest job.

I try to manage my day by my circadian rhythms because the creativity is such an elusive thing, and I could easily just stomp over it doing my administrative stuff.

Devote each day to the object then in time and every evening will find something done.

If you give yourself to your task at once, you won't have to do it twice.

Focus is a matter of deciding what things you're not going to do.

I just want to focus on one thing at a time.

I really love writing, but I am very easily distracted: my two cats fighting, a rainbow, a TV show... I have to use every trick to keep myself at the computer.

I procrastinate so much and I get distracted by anything.

I think the lack of precision and deep focus is why it took me years to build up my work.

I need complete silence when I write.

I always appreciate people's opinions, but sometimes I have to take a step back and remember why I'm writing and what I want to do with it. Shutting out the voices is difficult but it's been good for me.

I never listen to music when I write.

On a regular basis if you're trying to produce something, I think you should work every day and set achievable goals.

When you're at work, it's about being present and getting as much done as humanly possible.

I swing between procrastination and being really thorough so either way things aren't getting done quickly.

There'll come a writing phase where you have to defend the time, unplug the phone and put in the hours to get it done.

I make time to exercise. It's not being indulgent. I think it's got a lot to do with your ability to manage properly and stay focused. There's no doubt about that.

The problem with being a writer/director: unless you're really disciplined, you start adding projects, and you have to make time to make them. Because you have to write them... no one else is writing them for me.