Jeff MacNelly Quotes

I'm guessing the stress of having to write for a deadline can be inspiring. Sometimes, pressure is good.

The ultimate inspiration is the deadline.

I'm more focused and have a greater sense of challenge, because I constantly feel the weight of time.

Momentum is a fragile force. Its worst enemy: procrastination. Its best friend: a deadline (think Election Day). Implication no. 1 (and there is no no. 2): Get to work! NOW!

The most difficult thing about painting is the self-discipline. When I finish a job, I give myself a few days, but then I have to discipline myself quite fiercely if I want to do some painting that's worthwhile. Otherwise, you're just doodling. It's much easier when you're just told what you have to do.

I have no writing habit. I work when I feel like it, and I work when I have to - mostly the latter.

I couldn't understand why my productivity went down when I had deliberately made more time available to write. Then I realized it was because I wasn't flying as much.

A deadline is negative inspiration. Still, it's better than no inspiration at all.

I've learned over decades of building that a deadline is a potent tool for problem-solving.

I do some of my best work when I'm dead.

You don't have any days to spare if you want to improve!

Usually composers need a reason to write. I need a deadline.

I don't need time, I need a deadline.

My schedule is always tight. But I like to have the pressure of having to finish doing something; it gives me an added edge.

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

Writing is very good for household tasks. Because you'd rather fix a dripping tap or paint an old wall - you'd rather do almost anything than sit and write. I have to reach a point of obsession in order to write, and so I find starting a book incredibly difficult.

I have ideas every day, and if I'm not carrying a pad of paper, I'm typing it into the notes thing on my iPhone, and it's just ridiculous - idle hands are the devil's plaything, and I can't be the devil's plaything. I got to be the devil; I got to be the guy making it all happen.

If I have one thing on in a week, I find it very difficult to get back to work that week. I need a lot of dreaming time.

I try to stay focused on my creativity.

I always have music playing in my studio when I design. It really gets me in the mood and allows me to focus.

The more I want a book to be done, the faster I type because I just want to get it out.

We shall never have more time. We have, and always had, all the time there is. No object is served in waiting until next week or even until tomorrow. Keep going... Concentrate on something useful.

If I'm not at my study by 10:00, 10:30, forget it, I can't write a word.

I think every artist needs a rule that's stupid but that helps him, like a deadline would.

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.