external distractions Quotes

There were a lot of distractions in Baltimore, and I think they were a problem for me.

As an English major I was familiar with the stories of dozens of writers trying to get their work done among the multifarious diversions of the world and the hurdles of their own vices. A professor had said that what saved writers is that they, like politicians, had the illusion of destiny that allowed them to overcome obstacles no matter how nominal their work.

I think you can develop your ability to be clutch, if that's the word that you will use, your ability to focus and to be able to block out all the external stuff.

I don't care who's on the label, because I have a job to do.

Keep growing quietly and seriously throughout your whole development; you cannot disturb it more rudely than by looking outward and expecting from outside replies to questions that only your inmost feeling in your most hushed hour can perhaps answer.

I'm doing whatever I have to do to help my team win. So, instead of being focused on anything from the outside, I'm focused on winning and that next game.

Beg of God the removal of envy, that God may deliver you from externals, and bestow upon you an inward occupation, which will absorb you so that your attention is not drawn away.

If we really want to achieve true prayer, we must turn our backs upon everything temporal, everything external, everything that is not divine.

I don't get caught up in the hoopla, worry about where I'm pitching or if I'm pitching Game 1 or Game 5.

I think, it is a challenge to get critics or whoever to see past what you wear and makeup and the way you look and just concentrate on the music.

Everything that comes with the game, I think I will handle it extremely easily. I don't let a lot of that outside stuff bother me.

You have to find what makes you stable in the storm. Then, no matter what's happening round you, no matter what the hype or the publicity, you can still manage to make leaps in your work as an artist.

He already knows what I look like," Cath said. "There's no point in being tricky about it now." "How is doing your hair--and maybe putting on some lip gloss--being tricky?" "It's like I'm trying to distract him with something shiny.

They change their sky, not their mind, who cross the sea. A busy idleness possesses us: we seek a happy life, with ships and carriages: the object of our search is present with us.

I used to be too subjective, and I was always tempted to find my inner self in the exterior and dissipate my imagination on other people and on life.

If I really want inner peace in my life, then I must not busy myself with what other people do and say.

We often see people every day searching in the wrong places for the things they desire. Too many of our fellow humans try to find peace and happiness in drugs, alcohol, and sensual excitement. And it doesn't work. If we desire peace, the first place to look is within ourselves. Peace isn't an external condition as much as an internal context.

I don't follow any of what the pop world is doing. Sometimes I feel like that's a weakness, actually, that I'm too in my own bubble. But I'm really just interested in the inner journey. And pop is all about the exterior world, the material.

Cherish that which is within you, and shut off that which is without; for much knowledge is a curse.

And it's just anathema to being a writer. It's not healthy. But in another way, when I'm writing, what it's about for me is being good on the page. None of that noise could change the way I feel about my writing. Which is not always particularly positive.

As long as we focus on the outside, there will always be that empty, hungry, lost place inside that needs to be filled.

In many cases, people who win a Nobel prize, their work slows down after that because of the distractions. Yes, fame is rewarding, but it's a pity if it keeps you from doing the work you are good at.

Life is lived on the inside. What's outside doesn't matter.

I know what I'm about. My teammates know, my family knows, everything else, I can't worry about.