Best minutes & writing Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

“I was coming back from Tel Aviv recently, and we had forty minutes of bumps. I got so scared I grabbed a paper and pen and put them in my pocket, just in case we crashed and I needed to write a letter from wherever we landed.”

Writing Cases Minutes Needed Paper Letters Scared Pockets Forty Pens Coming Back Bumps Paper And Pen

Author:Daniela Pestova

“Writing books isn't a drastic departure from writing for the stage. I've always written in the long format, five, eight, 10-minute pieces rather than one-liners, so since writing books, the process hasn't changed much. A piece in my live routine can end up as part of one of my HBO specials, and it can also end up in one of the books.”

Writing Long Book Ends Process Five Pieces Written Minutes Stage Changed Eight Routine Writing A Book Departure Format One Liner Hbo Drastic

Author:George Carlin

“We all have time to write. We have time to write the minute we are willing to write badly, to chase a dead end, to scribble a few words, to write for the hell of it instead of for the perfect and polished result.”

Writing Ends Time Perfect Results Hell Minutes Willing Polished Few Words Dead Ends Scribbles

Book:The Right to Write: An Invitation and Initiation into the Writing Life

Source: The Right to Write: An Invitation and Initiation into the Writing Life

“I love words but I don't like strange ones. You don't understand them and they don't understand you. Old words is like old friends, you know 'em the minute you see 'em.”

Knows Writing Minutes Strange Ems Old Friends

Book:Will Rogers' Weekly Articles: The Hoover Years, 1929-1931

Source: Will Rogers' Weekly Articles: The Hoover Years, 1929-1931

“I spend 60 hours a week on my business but I don't work for a minute. Work is hard. But what I do - writing, speaking, researching, learning, and sharing information - is pure joy. It's what I was called to do.”

Writing Hard Joy Hours Work Week Minutes Information Pure Pure Joy Sharing Information

Author:Carmine Gallo

“I failed to get into drama school, and my best friend told me I should do stand-up instead. I was always doing gags and voices, so he booked a gig for me without telling me. I only had four days to write it. I did a seven-minute set; the first four minutes were terrible, but the last two were amazing.”

Should Writing Firsts Two School Lasts Voice Four Minutes Terrible Drama Seven My Best Friend Gigs Gags

Author:Marcus Brigstocke

“Students think they must write down the idea immediately, but I tell them if it's a good idea it'll be in your head in five minutes' time.”

Ifs Thinking Writing Ideas Five Minutes Students Good Ideas Five Minutes

Author:Judith Weir

“The work saved me. I clung to it like flotsam in a boiling sea. It was the only solitary sport that I ever played, or was any good at. It felt natural to sit at my computer and type and type some more. For entire minutes, while writing, I could forget the godawful thing that had happened. I could forget that nothing really mattered anymore. Perhaps, if I set my sights low, I could care again about some small thing. I would type a word. One word. Then another. I started to care about the words, then entire sentences.”

Source: Enchanted Evening Barbie and the Second Coming: A Memoir

“My first job was with the Burns Detective Agency. They sent me over to the East River to guard coal barges during these god-awful hours like three to six in the morning. It wasn't a very difficult job -- all I had to do was make a round every fifteen minutes -- but it turned out to be a great environment for writing. I was completely alone in a little outhouse with an electric heater and a little desk.”

Writing Firsts Littles Jobs Three Difficult Hours Morning Environment Minutes Six Rivers Rounds East Awful Agency Electric Fifteen Desks Coal Detectives Barges

Author:Sam Shepard

“Journalism taught me how to write a sentence that would make someone want to read the next one. You are trained to get rid of anything nonessential. You go in, you start writing your article, assuming a person's going to stop reading the minute you give them a reason. So the trick is: don't give them one.”

Want Giving Writing Persons Reason Reading Next Minutes Taught Assuming Sentences Tricks Journalism Articles The Next One

Author:Amy Hempel

“No music. No rituals. At home I write in my office or on the laptop in the kitchen where our puppy likes to sleep, and I love his company. But I've trained myself to be able to work anywhere, and I write on trains, planes, in automobiles (if I'm not the driver), airports, hotel rooms. I travel often. If I couldn't write wherever I was I would get little done. I also can write in short bursts. Fifteen minutes are enough to move a story forward.”

“In order to even begin to learn how to play his instrument, it takes the guitarist weeks to build calluses on his fingertips; it takes the saxophonist months to strengthen his lip so that he might play his instrument for only a five-minute stretch; it can take the pianist years to develop dual hand and multiple finger coordination. Why do writers assume they can just “write” with no training whatsoever-and then expect, on their first attempt, to be published internationally? What makes them think they're so much inherently greater, need so much less training than any other artists?”

Source: The First Five Pages: A Writer's Guide to Staying Out of the Rejection Pile

“Imagine you had a bank that each morning credited your account with $1,440 - with one condition: whatever part of the $1,440 you failed to use during the day would be erased from your account, and no balance would be carried over. What would you do? You'd draw out every cent every day and use it to your best advantage. Well, you do have such a bank, and its name is time. Every morning, this bank credits you with 1,440 minutes. And it writes off as forever lost whatever portion you have failed to invest to good purpose.”

Writing Wells Use Would Be Purpose Names Lost Morning Forever Imagine Minutes Conditions Balance Draws Advantage Accounts Credit Portions Cents Every Morning

Author:Ann Landers

“Letters remind us that when we write we can bring back the best of times, even make time stand still, if only for a few minutes.”

Ifs Writing Stills Minutes Letters Making Time

Author:Lois Wyse

“A letter is never ill-timed; it never interrupts. Instead it waits for us to find the opportune minute, the quiet moment to savor the message. There is an element of timelessness about letter writing.”

Writing Moments Waiting Minutes Quiet Elements Messages Letters Ill Timelessness Letter Writing Quiet Moments

Author:Lois Wyse

“If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn't brood. I'd type a little faster.”

Ifs Life Writing Littles Minutes Inspirational Life Type Six Doctors Faster Sympathy Card

Author:Isaac Asimov

“I have to be by myself when I write, and I never know how long it will take. It is like making butter. Sometimes it will come in a few minutes, and sometimes I have to churn away for hours.”

Knows Writing Long Sometimes Hours Know How Minutes

Book:The Little Colonel's House Party

Source: The Little Colonel's House Party

“I feel successful when the writing goes well. This lasts five minutes. Once, when I was number one on the bestseller list, I also felt successful. That lasted three minutes.”

Feels Writing Wells Lasts Three Felt Difficult Numbers Successful Five Minutes Lists Five Minutes Difficult Days

Author:Jacqueline Briskin

“If somebody writes a review of a dry cleaner, that piece of content is not wildly viral. It's not like a viral video that can spread across the world in a matter of minutes, so as a result, each market is almost an island unto itself.”

Ifs World Writing Matter Results Pieces Minutes Spread Video Islands Dry Reviews Cleaners Viral Dry Cleaners Viral Videos

Author:Jeremy Stoppelman

“It started off for me as just wanting to be an actor and sort of resenting in a weird way being expected to write as well as be a comedian and an improviser. And then you think about it for a minute, and I smartened up and realized that the only way to sustain a career is to generate your own material. Or to be in control of your career as best you can. And in allowing yourself to do that it opens up a whole new world of possibilities. And then you're like "Oh, producing is a thing."”

Thinking World Way Writing Wells Whole Actors Careers Minutes Possibility Materials Expected Comedian Allowing New World

Author:Rob Corddry

“When I was in grade school and we had to write papers about what we wanted to be when we grew up, I wanted to be a social worker or a missionary or a teacher... Then I got involved with tennis, and everything was just me, me, me. I was totally selfish and thought about myself and nobody else, because if you let up for one minute, someone was going to come along and beat you. I really wouldn't let anyone or any slice of happiness enter... I didn't like the characteristics that it took to become a champion.”

“What writing ROOM taught me was that I know exactly how to be the perfect mother, but I'm not willing to do it for more than ten minutes at a time.”

Knows Writing Mother Perfect Rooms Minutes Taught Willing Ten

Author:Emma Donoghue

“In writing if it takes over 30 minutes to write the first two paragraphs select another subject.”

Ifs Writing Firsts Two Minutes Subjects Select Paragraph

Author:Raymond Aron

“Everyone seems to assume that the unscrupulous parts of journalism will be the frivolous or jocular parts. This is against all ethical experience. Jokes are generally honest. Complete solemnity is almost always dishonest. The writer of the snippet merely refers to a frivolous and fugitive fact in a frivolous and fugitive way. The writer of the leading article has to write about a fact he has known for 20 minutes as though he has studied it for 20 years.”

Way Writing Years Facts Seems Known Minutes Honest Jokes Assuming Journalism Ethical Articles Frivolous Fugitive Solemnity

Author:Gilbert K. Chesterton

“Write down the area of your life that most needs your attention right now and then write out all the details you saw of your soul's vision for this part of your life. What will that part of your life look like? How will achieving your goal change your life? How will it change the life of those around you? When you reach your goal, when you fulfill that desire, what will it make room for? Write that all down.”

Needs Writing Looks Doe Soul Desire Goal Rooms Attention Vision Minutes Achieve Right Now Areas Details Your Soul Now And Then Changing Your Life Achieving Your Goals Reaching Your Goals

Author:Debbie Ford

“If you want to write and can't figure out how to do it, try this: Pick an amount of time to sit at your desk every day. Start with twenty minutes, say, and work up as quickly as possible to as much time as you can spare. Do you really want to write? Sit for two hours a day.”

Ifs Want Writing Trying Two Hours Minutes Figures Amount Picks Twenties Desks Spares

Book:This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage

Source: This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage

“Sometimes words come easily and sometimes they don't. Most songs take me twenty minutes to write.”

Writing Sometimes Song Minutes Twenties Take Me

Author:Jillian Hervey

“When people have no interest in a subject, it's very hard to get them to laugh about it. If I had to write ten jokes about potholders, I don't think I could do it. But I could write ten jokes about Catholicism in the next twenty minutes.”

People Ifs Thinking Writing Hard Next Interest Laughing Minutes Subjects Ten Jokes Twenties Catholicism

Author:George Meyer

“I write songs very quickly, so the 20 minutes of joy I get out of writing a song doesn't compare to the two months of joy I get engaging with the people who like my music.”

People Writing Two Joy Song Minutes Months Compare Engaging Two Months

Author:Halsey

“It usually takes me 20 to 90 minutes to write a song because once I start, I don't stop. I like when it's really organic, so I try to knock it out in one shot.”

Writing Trying Song Minutes Shots Take Me

Author:Halsey

“I can write faster on a typewriter than you can on a computer. I do 120 words a minute, and you can't do that on a computer.”

Writing I Can Minutes Computer Faster Typewriters

Book:Conversations with Ray Bradbury

Source: Conversations with Ray Bradbury

“He was all emotion all the time, constantly talking about his feelings and his profound love for her. He was minutes from getting his first period. He wrote poems too. It's my personal belief that if men are writing poems, they're making up for something else like a big hair back, or one ball. Not that one ball is a bad thing. Especially since I don't know any females who are dying to their their hands on a set of balls. The way I see it, the less balls, the better.”

“With a song, it only takes a couple of minutes to go back to the beginning and try it again to see if it works. The novel freaks me out because, what if you get into the eighth chapter and think, 'Let's go to the top and see if this works again? It's going to take me three weeks.' I'm in awe of that.”

Ifs Thinking Writing Trying Song Three Novel Week Minutes Couple Awe What If Songwriting Take Me Freak Chapters

Author:Ben Folds

“There's a lot of craft in songwriting. The divine inspiration is when the idea comes. It may be a riff. It may be a word. It may be a phrase. It may be a title. Sometimes, in the best of both worlds, that divine inspiration extends through the whole song. I've literally sat down and written a song from beginning to end, almost complete lyrics and everything without ever stopping...in two minutes. The chorus of 'She's Gone' was like that.”

“The tweets are getting shorter, but the songs are still 4 minutes long. You're coming up with 140-character zingers, and the song is still 4 minutes long…I realized about a year ago that I couldn't have a complete thought anymore. And I was a tweetaholic. I had four million twitter followers, and I was always writing on it. And I stopped using twitter as an outlet and I started using twitter as the instrument to riff on, and it started to make my mind smaller and smaller and smaller. And I couldn't write a song.”

Writing Years Mind Long Stills Character Song Millions Four Minutes Years Ago Instruments I Realized Followers Outlets Tweet 140 Character

Author:John Mayer

“I explain to everyone I deal with-co-workers, children, friends-that I'm transitionally challenged and they should call me on my cell phone if I'm even a few minutes late. Such calls often come in when I'm happily writing or rearranging the furniture. The monochrones in my life are so organized, they have no trouble remembering to remind me to show up.”

Ifs Should Writing Children Shows Remember Deals Trouble Minutes Late Workers Phones Cells Organized Call Me Furniture Cell Phone Co Worker Rearranging

Author:Martha Beck

“If I can tell you the story from beginning to end in five minutes, I'm ready to start writing.”

Ifs Writing I Can Ends Stories Five Minutes Ready Five Minutes

Author:Richard Price

“I sit and I write automatically. I don't really try to write. My subconscious mind takes over and writes the songs for me. Songs come very easily for me. When I'm inspired, it takes me 20 minutes to write a song.”

Writing Trying Mind Song Minutes Inspired Take Me Subconscious Subconscious Mind

Author:Brian Wilson

“In the back of my mind was the constant hankering, almost yearning, to write but something always stopped me in my tracks. Or if I did find my way to put a pen to paper or finger on a keyboard I'd give up after a few minutes. I'd find other things to do: Anything but writing.”

Ifs Way Giving Writing Mind Minutes Giving Up Paper Constant Fingers Track My Way Things To Do Pens Yearning Of My Mind Keyboards Hankering

Author:Mary Garden

“When I wrote my first film and then directed it and I looked at it for the first time on what's called an assembly, you look at this movie which is every scene you wrote, every line of dialogue you wrote and you want to kill yourself the minute you see it. It's like, 'How did I write something so horrible?'”

Want Writing Firsts Looks Film Lines Minutes Scene First Time Horrible Dialogue Assembly Killing Yourself

Author:Bruce Joel Rubin

“When you're on the set, and sometimes, because it's been so complex and the writers have been really writing, sometimes up until the last minute... And you kind of sit back; you separate yourself from your brain, and you say, let me see if you can do this. And that's the kind of challenge I like.”

Ifs Writing Kind Has Beens Sometimes Lasts Can Do Challenges Brain Minutes Let Me Complexes Last Minute

Author:Glenn Close

“You can't write a children's book that takes more than five or six minutes to read, because it will drive the parents batty. It has to be compact. Nobody thinks about the parents when they write these stupid books. I could write longer children's books, but it would actually be bad if I did.”

Ifs Thinking Writing Children Book Parent Five Minutes Stupid Six Children's Books Compact

Author:Michael Ian Black

“The craft, the writing of a song, is about creating a story, a life story, a world within three minutes, but that's the frame, if you like, the picture frame. That fascinates me.”

Ifs World Writing Stories Song Three Minutes Creating Crafts Life Story Picture Frames

Author:PJ Harvey

“No two books come out the same way. Some I write by the seat of my pants; others are planned in minute detail.”

Way Writing Two Book Minutes Details Seats Pants

Author:Charles Stross

“I tend to write songs fast, so the process usually only lasts around 30 minutes. In the studio is where I really can artistically breathe, and let my ideas flow.”

Writing Ideas Lasts Song Process Minutes Flow Studios Breathe

Author:Alan Cohen

“I always have a feeling you should move the playing field and the minute you know what you're doing, you're wrong. Therefore, I wanted us not to try to follow Spamalot immediately, but to do something different. This is perfect because it uses all the same skills, like story telling and lyric writing and music writing, but it's presenting it in a different form. And of course it gives me and John a nice chance to perform and show off which is also fun.”

“People can write jokes five minutes after a major world event happens, and have hundreds of thousands of people read them within 10 minutes. Whereas before you write a joke, you don't know if anybody is really touching on it or not, and you tell it onstage the next night. For joke writing it has changed things.”

People Ifs Knows World Writing Happens Night Next Five Minutes Events Changed Majors Jokes Touching Five Minutes World Events

Author:Nick Thune

“I write pretty fast, probably faster than most people. But I might think about something for six hours, then write it in 20 minutes. So did I write for six hours and 20 minutes, or just 20 minutes? I used to write absolutely every day, except for days when I had to travel or something.”

People Thinking Writing Might Used Hours Minutes Six Faster

Author:Chuck Klosterman

“You're always moving and thinking about a whole bunch of things. But those traits work well for me in studios and in meetings about creative ideas. If you listen to the songs I write, they are the most ADHD songs ever. They have five hooks in one and it all happens in three minutes. I figured out a way of working with it.”

Ifs Thinking Way Writing Wells Ideas Whole Happens Moving Song Three Creative Five Minutes Meetings Studios Bunch Traits Hook Adhd Creative Ideas Always Moving

Author:will.i.am

“Songwriting is never one thing. I've spent as long as three months writing a song. Other times I've done it in twenty minutes.”

Writing Long Done Song Three One Thing Minutes Months Twenties Songwriting Three Months

Author:Greg Lake

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