Donald Hall Quotes

I jog in the morning and then write for about two hours. There are times when I'm really excited and can't wait to get back to it. But there are days when I don't know what's coming next, and I really have to force it.

You have to write every day, and you have to write whether you feel like it or not.

If you're not prepared, and you're not passionate, and you don't push yourself to a level of human exhaustion on every level, mentally and physically and creatively... I've seen directors who approach it casually, and they do somehow maintain better hours... but I could never be that guy. I am up and editing all night.

The one ironclad rule is that I have to try. I have to walk into my writing room and pick up my pen every weekday morning.

I've always prided myself on my discipline as a writer. I do it like a job. I get up in the morning and go to my desk.

If I give myself a chore, for instance, when I was writing the songs for Shameless, I said to myself, Now, every day for 90 days you have to write a song; good, bad or indifferent. So that was really helpful.

Volume depends precisely on the writer's having been able to sit in a room every day, year after year, alone.

I'm always trying. Between every book, I think, 'Well now, it's time to get down to the serious stuff.'

I just write from dawn to dusk.

Writing is grunt work - you need to have self-motivation, perseverance, and faith... talent is the smallest part of it.

Don't wait for inspiration. It comes while one is working.

I don't believe in writer's block. Most of writer's block is having too much time on your hands. My mantra is that you can always edit a bad page; you can't edit a blank page.

I don't know what it is that makes a writer go to his desk in his shut-off room day after day after year after year unless it is the sure knowledge that not to have done the daily stint of writing that day is infinitely more agonizing than to write.

To be a writer is to sit down at one's desk in the chill portion of every day, and to write; not waiting for the little jet of the blue flame of genius to start from the breastbone - just plain going at it, in pain and delight. To be a writer is to throw away a great deal, not to be satisfied, to type again, and then again, and once more, and over and over...

The sooner you learn to finish things, and as a matter of course finish your creative endeavors, the better. It took me a long time to learn that.

During the day, if I don't have any other commitments, I'm usually at my desk writing, revising, or researching anywhere from four to six hours.

I'd say the most memorable thing for me was my dedication and motivation in how I got so involved in boxing.

The best restriction I learned was getting into the habit of doing something, even if I didn't feel like it, instead of running away from it. Sometimes good work needs to be earned, and when you can overcome yourself, the muse notices and celebrates.

I really try to write every day. It's hard, but it's my favorite thing to do, so it's usually not too, too hard.

Anybody can have this body if you do enough sit-ups and you just make a decision that 'Every day, I'm going to work out.' There are some days that I just don't feel like doing it, and I don't. But more often than not I get up and I get on the treadmill that I want to shoot and just do it. The first 20 minutes are the hardest.

Write every day, just to keep in the habit, and remember that whatever you have written is neither as good nor as bad as you think it is. Just keep going, and tell yourself that you will fix it later.

I don't wait for inspiration. I get up and write every day.

No matter what I'm doing, I'm training. I'm training every day and I think that's something I won't lose - no matter what I do, no matter what event I'm at, I always find a way to train. It's just something that I love to do.

I always treated writing as a profession, never as a hobby. If you don't believe in yourself, no one else will.

Writing is total grunt work. A lot of people think it's all about sitting and waiting for the muse. I don't buy that. It's a job. There are days when I really want to write, days when I don't. Every day I sit down and write.