Quotes About Discipline

I write while my son is at school. At about 7:45 A.M., I walk him there, with the dogs, then walk them for another forty minutes or so, go home and chain myself to the desk a little before 9 A.M., and try not to be distracted until I hear my son plunge through the front door at about 3 P.M.

My teachers said, 'Always keep a Beethoven sonata under your fingers.' I always have. I still play chamber music, and I always play classical.

It was kind of like songwriter's boot camp. You had to produce. You had to produce fast. You had to learn.

Working as a musician, I have to constantly generate new material, so school keeps me sharp. Reading and writing all the time helps me to be a better songwriter.

I don't take off as many days as most other producers and songwriters, so I'm working every single day, and I do songs every day. So it's just about finding time, scheduling, getting in and cutting the records. I make it happen and that's the name of the game. It's no excuses - you gotta figure it out.

Songwriting is a muscle. The more you do it, the better you get at it.

Early in my songwriting career, when I was learning a lot about writing songs, I'd force myself to sit down until I came up with something.

I try and treat songwriting as something that I have to practise every day.

I sit down and I write and I make sure that it follows the code of Songwriting Craft 101.

When Sonic Youth wrote music, we would rehearse for months before anybody heard anything.

There was a period in my life when I was very young that I wrote a sonnet a day just to learn concision in writing.

I try to write in the mornings, as soon as I'm up and caffeinated, and to stay in the chair as long as I can be productive.

Once you begin being naughty, it is easier to go and on and on, and sooner or later something dreadful happens.

The stage is a routine. It keeps you grounded, like a metronome. I find that soothing.

My old dance teacher, Jimmy Wilde, a former European ballroom dancing champion, was so sophisticated.

What I'm pushing for is an economic discipline that will be closer to other social sciences; in particular, we should be more pragmatic about the methods that we are using instead of pretending that we have our own scientific apparatus with very sophisticated mathematic models that distinguish us from sociologists and historians.

And then you have the classical ballerinas, they're like sopranos. Applied to the dance.

You just have to put in the work. Work really hard, get a good coach and a good gym. You have to have the right mindset to be a champion. Don't make excuses on going to the gym like your ankle is sore or what.

Sometimes if you kick too much, it can work in a negative direction. If you get tired or sore, you might develop some bad habits.

Giving kids whatever they ask for is disastrous parenting. There's no sense of something earned. I'm sorry, but when you're 12, you don't need a new cell phone every few months just because a new one comes out.

There is only one sort of discipline, perfect discipline.

Not chasing success, I want to focus on my process. If I do that, eventually everything gets sorted out.

Gene Kelly was one of the greatest dancers of all time and a taskmaster. He sought from you the absolute best - and he got it.

Punctuality is the soul of business.