Elizabeth Meriwether Quotes

Every show is unique; some shows have the master plan and have everything figured out and that's just the way they do things. It's like high school. Some people write their papers the second they get their assignments, and some people write it the day after it's due.

I'm a precrastinator. Yes, that's an actual term. You know that panic you feel a few hours before a big deadline when you haven't done anything yet? I just feel that a few months ahead of time.

The way I work, typically, I do everything at the very last minute. Even if I was given two months, I'd do it in the last three days.

I'm a 24-hour tweet machine, I'm a 24-hour blogger. When there's no pressure on me, I can talk and write and lecture with the best of them. But put a deadline on me and I start getting writer's block.

I don't believe in writer's block. Think about it - when you were blocked in college and had to write a paper, didn't it always manage to fix itself the night before the paper was due? Writer's block is having too much time on your hands.

The way I work, typically, I do everything at the very last minute.

You know Washington. If the deadline is midnight, they'll start working on it at 11:30.

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.

I guess I would say, it's okay to put things off until the very last minute as long as you know you've got them under control.

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

I envy people who can think, 'No, I'm not going to work today' when they have a huge pile of deadlines stacking up.

A lazy man works twice as hard. My mother told that to me, and now I say it to my kids. If you're writing an essay, keep it in the lines and in the margins so you don't have to do it over.

I start each book when it's ready and never before.

The key to getting work done on time is to stop wearing a watch.

I've actually not read any books on time management.

I rise at 6. Strong coffee helps me face the paper edition of 'The New York Times.' It daily challenges my own capacity for faking anything deranged enough to sound true. I work till 2 P.M. unless I am in the throes of finishing something. I rewrite to be reread.

I wish to God I was organized enough to tell you that, 'Yes, there will be 14 books, and this one will go here, and that one will go there'... but to be honest, I hardly know what I'm going to do when I get up in the morning.

I have no organisational skills. All my energy goes into worry - worrying takes a lot of energy.

What is not started today is never finished tomorrow.

I can't sit and twiddle my thumbs. I have to start writing even if it's miserable some days.

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 am definitely going to take a course on time management... just as soon as I can work it into my schedule.

Sometimes I decide I don't want to write because it isn't the thing for me to be doing right then, and I go do something else.

I can procrastinate a little bit.

When writers say that they need to 'set the mood' or 'get into the zone', those are all ways to procrastinate. Not prerequisites.