Quotes About Process

What my work is, is my approach to it. It's the practice. And my work is about the effort that I make to get there. And I think if there's anything artistic, it's in that middle space.

I work at the sentences. Many of the things people find distinctive about my writing, I think of as natural.

The real payoff is the writing itself, that a day when you have gotten your work done is a good day, that total dedication is the point.

The artist likes to seem totally responsible for his work. Often he begins to explain it, to make it appear as if it were a reasonable process.

When I work on music, I never think about vocalists. They're the last person I'm making music for.

Painting and animation can be kind of long work. Music was more immediate and more fun.

If you're writing, you're a writer. If you're talking about it or thinking about it, I'm not so sure. Writing is ninety-eight percent work and two percent magic.

I think when I was younger, I wanted to be a star, until I became a star, and then it's a lot of work. It's work to be a star. I don't enjoy the stardom part. I only enjoy the creative process.

I never liked stardom. It's weird to me. I only like the creative process. I only like the work.

I go to my studio every day. Some days work comes easily. Other days nothing happens. Yet on the good days the inspiration is only an accumulation of all the other days, the nonproductive ones.

I always wanted to have a career that would keep me at home in New York so I can work in the theater all the time and be involved in the creative process from the ground up.

I tend to work on a song, generate ideas, and re-arrange it like five times, and I'm glad I take the time to do that, because I think my original songs come out better.

That is, an artist who creates lots of work probably experiences prolific days and slower days.

T.V.s weird because its both the greatest gig as an actor potentially because it can be all this work for all this time, but there are so many question marks at every stage of the process.

I place a lot of emphasis on process and revision because I believe that all of my students can become better writers through hard work.

Each work seems to give me the most trouble at the time I'm working on it.

A lot of my work is process-oriented. I delve into my work and sit alone in silence and work with the material and process it, like talking to yourself.

Songwriting is like working on a jigsaw puzzle, and it doesn't make any sense until you find that last piece. It has to make sense or it doesn't work.

I enjoy the process of TV; I like the pace of it; I like the continual work.

Sometimes I do work on a longer manuscript in tandem with one or two shorter pieces - whether it's a short story or an essay (though I don't write many of the latter).

I just think, as writers, especially with a book that takes years to write, you sort of wake up every morning hoping and praying that you can make it work for the day.

There's something Zen-like about the way I work - it's like raking gravel in a Zen Buddhist garden.

I've never tried to work chronologically. I don't think I have the discipline to do that.

Directing is such a crucial part of the writing process; you start directing and you see what does not work. "Oh, God, what was I thinking?" and then you can rearrange it.