Vikram Seth Quotes

There's no writer's block; there's only distraction.

I write in public libraries and sometimes coffee shops. I can't write at home and gave up trying long ago. I need activity around me that I'm forced to block out. It helps me focus.

I don't generally listen to music while working, but sometimes music can help me get past minor writer's block.

For a long time, I would write without music, because I thought it was distracting until I appreciated that it actually unlocks a certain unconscious productivity vault in my mind.

Successful writers say you should never work from a desk with a view, and the view I have from this one is a huge distraction. There's a garden bursting with fresh vegetation, and just beyond the high wall at the end of it, I can see the sign of the local pub across the road. Distractions, eh? I'm so easily led.

Sometimes I write with music on, and if I'm in a good flow, I don't even hear it.

When I'm writing, I'm in an isolation chamber. I'm not one to think about that outside world stuff when I'm writing.

I write in the mornings once the kids have gone to school, taking my laptop and a coffee to a little writer's room in town where I plant noise-cancelling headphones on my head and get to work.

Decide where and when you want to write. I like space, and silence is an inspiration to me.

The space where writing happens is a unique space that's hard to define, and when you're kicked out of it because you're travelling or distracted, it seems so elusive and hard to defend because you yourself doubt whether it existed.

I listen to music constantly while writing.

I often find that having an idea in my head prevents me from doing something else. Working is therefore a way of getting rid of an idea.

Music inspires me and puts me in the right mood, but to actually listen to it when I write - I find it gets in the way.

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

I never think at all when I write. Nobody can do two things at the same time and do them both well.

You can write any time people will leave you alone and not interrupt you. Or, rather, you can if you will be ruthless enough about it. But the best writing is certainly when you are in love.

Some writers like to work in other places like coffee shops, but I can't - I'd end up people-watching. And if I were at a bookstore, I'd be reading. Sometimes I have some music on, but usually I like it quiet.

I think we've all been in the middle of doing something we cared about, when someone coming in the room and saying 'hello' was annoying. I personally can understand that, as someone who tries to create.

I write anywhere - when I have an idea, it's hard not to write. I used to be kind of precious about where I wrote. Everything had to be quiet and I couldn't be disturbed; it really filled my day.

I don't listen to music when I write - I find it distracting.

I'm very easily distracted unless I have music on. Listening to music while I brainstorm makes me think of scenes that would fit the mood of the music I'm playing.

I write best late at night, when everyone in the house has gone to bed. There's something magical about that late night silence that appeals to me.

When I write I find a quiet place.

I like to write in coffee shops in countries in which languages I do not speak are spoken. That way, you're surrounded by the buzz of humanity, but you aren't distracted by people's conversations.

When I am writing best, I really am lost in my world. I lose track of the outside world. I have a difficult time balancing between my real world and the artificial world.