“I'm sort of an 'automatic' writer. I'm not much for chiseling away at songs or working at them for days trying to make them perfect. If I can sit down and write something in five minutes, then that's great. And if that doesn't happen, then either it doesn't get finished or else it's usually not any good.” IfsWritingTryingI CanHappensSongPerfectFiveMinutesDown AndFinishedFive Minutes Author:Leon Russell
“The best songs that I write usually come in, like, two minutes, and I think a lot of songwriters would probably say those kind of songs that come just like that are the good ones.” ThinkingWritingKindTwoSongMinutesSongwriters Author:Lauren Hart
“The fact is that I write under duress, often in my bed, often at the last minute. I'm kind of a binge writer I would say, which I don't support. I was always kind of that way. Probably the time I was the most regular as a writer was college. It was like, what else is there to do when you're living in the Midwest studying creative writing?” WayWritingKindFactsLastsSupportCreativeStudyMinutesCollegeBedCreative WritingMidwestLast MinuteBingeDuress Author:Lena Dunham
“To a large extent: it's about economy of space. You have so little real estate when you're writing a half hour show. It's really twenty minutes. So you have to with a pilot introduce all your characters, set up the premise in a way that shows the potential for a series and make it funny and do it all in about thirty-five or forty pages. It's very hard.” WayWritingLittlesRealHardCharacterShowsHoursSpaceHalfEconomyFiveMinutesPagesTwentiesSeriesThirtyFortyPilotsIntroducingEstatesPremisesHalf Hours Author:Jonathan M. Goldstein
“Me and Conan O'Brien and Robert Smigel and Dana Carvey wrote a script called 'Hans and Franz: The Girlyman Dilemma,' and it was going to be co-produced with Arnold Schwarzenegger, and he was going to co-star in it. We had a deal with Sony, we got paid to write it, and it was a musical, but it never got made because...I think Arnold kind of backed out at the last minute because he was getting cold feet because ;The Last Action Hero' had come out, where he was parodying himself. But it was a really funny script, and I wish it could've seen the light, because I think it would've done really well.” ThinkingWritingWellsKindMadeDoneLightActionLastsWishStarsDealsFeetMinutesColdHeroPaidMusicalScriptsDilemmaLast MinuteSchwarzeneggerSonyConanAction HeroesCold FeetConan O Brien Author:Kevin Nealon
“I'm still suffering from shock from the last war. I was almost drafted! Luckily I was wounded while taking the physical. When I reached the psychiatrist, I said, Give me a gun, I'll wipe out the whole German Army in five minutes. He said, You're crazy! I said, Write it down!” GivingWritingSaidStillsWarWholeLastsSufferingFiveCrazyMinutesGunGive MeArmyShockWoundedFive MinutesWipePsychiatrist Author:Jackie Mason
“We do want the freedom to move scenes from episode to episode to episode. And we do want the freedom to move writing from episode to episode to episode, because as it starts to come in and as you start to look at it as a five-hour movie just like you would in a two-hour movie, move a scene from the first 30 minutes to maybe 50 minutes in. In a streaming series, you would now be in a different episode. It's so complicated, and we're so still using the rules that were built for episodic television that we're really trying to figure it out.” WantWritingTryingFirstsLooksStillsTwoDifferentMovingHoursFiveMinutesFiguresTelevisionLike YouSceneBuiltSeriesComplicatedEpisodesStreaming Author:Jill Soloway
“There was a time when hip-hop was its own musical principle, aside from sampling. Like the entire Wild Style break is instrumental. Kurtis Blow's earliest stuff was studio musicians playing. Whodini had a real clear sound, things like "five minutes of funk," stuff that you could write really beautiful, lush string and horn arrangements around, stuff that was just music.” WritingRealBeautifulStuffSoundPrinciplesBreakClearFiveMinutesStyleMusicianMusicalBlowHip HopStudiosHipsHopsStringsArrangementsFive MinutesHornsReally BeautifulFunkLushSampling Author:Mos Def
“Usually it is a painful process (writing), "Superman" came in 45 minutes; "100 Years" in four months.” WritingYearsProcessFourMinutesMonthsPainful Author:Five for Fighting
“Sometimes I'll get a burst when I write lyrics, it usually happens in 20 minutes and I'll write the whole song, and that's really the only way it feels comfortable.” WayFeelsWritingSometimesWholeHappensSongMinutesComfortable Author:Jonny Lang
“Whatever job I had, I was always writing like crazy. All I ever liked about offices was being able to type up stories on the computer when no one was looking. I was never paying much attention in meetings because I was usually scribbling bits of my latest stories in the margins of the pad or thinking up names for my characters. This is a problem when you're supposed to be taking minutes of the meeting.” ThinkingWritingCharacterStoriesProblemAbleJobsNamesBitsAttentionCrazyMinutesTypeOfficeComputerMeetingsSupposed To BeMarginsPads Author:J. K. Rowling
“It's funny how you can struggle with one piece and write a better one in a minute. When things come easy, it means it's good.” WritingMeanEasyStrugglePiecesMinutesOne Piece Author:Joe Satriani
“I guess what people forget sometimes is that when I write songs, I write them sometimes in about 20 minutes.” PeopleWritingSometimesSongForgetMinutes Author:Alanis Morissette
“I just like to express myself in the world around me. And I love writing, but sometimes it feels a little too minute. Sometimes, at the end of the day, there's just not enough colors involved - visually, there are just words on a page.” WorldFeelsWritingLittlesEndsSometimesEnoughMinutesColorInvolvedPagesThe End Of The Day Author:Andrea Gabriel
“The fate of a song is often established in the first 15 minutes of writing.” WritingFirstsSongFateMinutes Author:Jens Lekman
“During those times like in my early years as a writer I could actually write a song in ten minutes because all of a sudden a song is writing itself, I'm just putting down words. It just seem each line that you put down flows with the other ones. It's like writing a love letter you don't think about it, it's something from the heart.” ThinkingWritingYearsHeartSeemsSongLinesMinutesTenFlowLettersLove Letter Author:Ben E. King
“When I was 23 I started writing for I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again and was paid three guineas for every minute's airtime.” WritingThreeMinutesPaidSorryI'm SorryGuinea Author:Eric Idle
“I am interested in politics but have stayed away from writing overtly political songs, or message songs, because I find it difficult to discuss politics intelligently in a 4-minute song. But I am finding there are ways to get bits and pieces of political thought across without preaching that the people have the power or we shall not be moved. Of course these sentiments have their place too - I'm not knocking Phil Ochs - but that's a different kind of music, songs to play at rallies, not to achieve a state of bliss.” PeopleWayWritingKindDifferentStatesPlayPoliticalSongCoursesBitsDifficultPiecesMinutesAchieveFindingsMessagesMovedBlissSentimentsDifferent KindsPreachingKnockingBits And PiecesDifferent Kinds Of Music Author:Dean Wareham
“The minute I landed back in Alaska, it was back to hip boots and fish guts. This cultural flipping wasn't easy - especially on top of the post-divorce fighting that was still going on between my parents. But this is why you don't write a memoir at age fourteen.” WritingStillsAgeFightingEasyParentMinutesFishesDivorceMemoirHipsPostsGutsBootsAlaskaFourteen Author:Leigh Newman
“I love to play music, and this is fun, and let's record this stuff in a way that we both like. That was exciting enough, so we just recorded it. There was no business in it until the very last minute, really. It was really as much of an extension of me writing the songs in my bedroom as it could possibly be.” WayWritingEnoughPlayLastsSongFunStuffRecordsMinutesExcitingBedroomExtensionsLast Minute Author:Zooey Deschanel
“Every night for the next week, set aside ten minutes before you go to sleep. Write down three things that went well today and why they went well...Writing about why the positive events in your life happened may seem awkward at first, but please stick with it for one week. It will get easier. The odds are that you will be less depressed, happier, and addicted to this exercise six months from now.” WritingFirstsWellsMaySeemsTodayNightThreeNextSleepHappenedWeekMinutesEventsMonthsEasierExercisePleaseTenSixSticksEvery NightAwkwardOddsSix MonthsThree ThingsGoing To SleepNext WeekLife Happens Author:Daniel Kahneman
“I actually write a lot, but mostly just daily gibberish. I am a documentation addict: "I just peed. I walked down the hallway. I dropped my pencil. I just aged a minute."” WritingMinutesAddictPencilsHallwaysDocumentation Author:Brian Chippendale
“When I write a novel I start each morning by reading for 20 minutes.” WritingReadingMorningNovelMinutes Author:Richard Ford
“I remember Prince gave me a cassette of Purple Rain. It was like 20 minutes long and he asked me to write something on it. I tried for a month and then he came to L.A. I went to see him and said, "I can't do it. It's too perfect. It's like 'Stairway to Heaven.'" He said OK and then I go, "I can keep the cassette, right?" He said, "Of course and thank you for trying."” WritingTryingLongSaidI CanRememberCoursesHeavenPerfectMinutesMonthsRainPurpleCassettesStairwaysStairway To HeavenPurple Rain Author:Stevie Nicks
“We were 15 minutes into it and nothing was happening; I thought, well, that's not going to work. Then all of a sudden everything clicked. I don't know how long it took us, but I would just show up at Alison's [McGhee] office. She would type and we'd just kick it back and forth. Writing is so scary for me, such a lonely endeavor, and it became a wonderful thing to show up and have somebody else go through it with me. It was actually a wonderful experience.” KnowsWritingWellsLongShowsKnow HowWonderfulMinutesTypeOfficeHappeningsLonelyScaryKicksEndeavorWonderful ThingsGoing To WorkBack And ForthWonderful Experience Author:Kate DiCamillo
“We'd decided to write a book about two friends. I gave her some coffee and then we sat there not knowing what to do. How do you start writing a book together? So Kate [DiCamillo] got up after about 10 minutes into this endeavor, and said, 'Well, that was fun,' and started to head out the door. I said, 'Wait, wait, wait, no no no,' because I'm a bit more patient.” WritingWellsSaidTwoBookTogetherFunBitsWaitingKnowingDoorsMinutesDecidedPatientCoffeeSatEndeavorNot KnowingWriting A BookKateTwo FriendsKnowing What To Do Author:Alison McGhee
“The minute you finish a piece of writing it doesn't belong to you, you don't write it any more, it belongs to you, the reader, the listener, the audience. So the less you know about whether or not this is me talking about my life or this is me talking about your life, I think the better. Then it can belong to you and it can live outside of the moment in which it was conceived.” ThinkingKnowsWritingMomentsTalkingAudiencePiecesMinutesReaderListenersThis Is Me Author:Kate Tempest
“When I post a review to book-blog.com it probably takes me - apart from writing the review, of course - 20 or 30 minutes to finish all my related tasks.But that's irregular, depending on how quickly I'm reading.” WritingBookCoursesReadingMinutesTasksPostsRelatedReviewsTake MeBlogs Author:Debra Hamel