Distraction Quotes - Page 16

• I typically don't adopt the ascetic approach. In part, that's because I do use the Net for research even as I'm writing (to check facts, or so on). But I think it's also because I find the possibility of distraction comforting.

  James Surowiecki

  Writing, Thinking, Comforting

  "Ask the Author Live: James Surowiecki on Procrastination". Live chat, www.newyorker.com. October 1, 2010.

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• The vast majority of things are distractions, and very few really matter to your success.

  Evan Williams

  Inspirational, Majority, Matter

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• Busy is good, isn't it? Busy means we're hard at it, achieving our ends or "goals." Haven't had time to stop, or look around or think. That's considered the sign of a life well lived ... Suppose, though, you're not sure that what you're doing is at all worthwhile. Suppose you blundered into it over a spoonful of lime pickle. It's easy, it pays quite well. But really it's a distraction. It stops you thinking about what you ought to be doing.

  Sebastian Faulks

  Mean, Thinking, Goal

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• Working to anticipate the future can be a distraction from the important task of dealing with the present.

  Ed Seykota

  Important, Tasks, Anticipate

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• My feeling is that nuclear is a distraction. It stops us doing what we all know we need to do invest urgently in renewables.

  Marc Edwards

  Feelings, Needs, Nuclear

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• I don't necessarily think there's a difference in terms of how the film industry and the ad industry view visual effects. If visual effects (or the lack thereof) are used as a tool to strengthen an idea, they're great. If they are meant to carry more of a load in the absence of a concept, they're a waste and a distraction.

  Joshua Rogers

  Thinking, Views, Ideas

  Source: screenrant.com

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• Any distraction tends to get in the way of being an effective gangster.

  Terence Winter

  Way, Gangsters

  Interview with June Thomas, www.slate.com. September 14, 2012.

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• Pretty much any given day, barring some major distraction, I get melodies coming to me. Lyrics don't come quite as easily. So I've been inventing little projects and challenges to sort of kick my ass with the lyrics.

  Andrew Bird

  Challenges, Littles, Ass

  Source: www.avclub.com

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• I think the guys that are successful might be a little more relaxed and able to deal with the distractions.

  Eli Manning

  Successful, Thinking, Guy

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• I write early in the morning at the computer, and people think Im crazy, but I still use my Mac-Classic even though we have a state-of-the-art PC. There are just less distractions with the simpler machine.

  Wendelin Van Draanen

  Art, Morning, Crazy

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• Art is a high calling - fears are coincidental. Coincidental, sneaky and disruptive, we might add, disguising themselves variously as laziness, resistance to deadlines, irritation with materials or surroundings, distraction over the achievements of others - indeed as anything that keeps you from giving your work your best shot. What separates artists from ex-artists is that those who challenge their fears, continue; those who don't, quit.

  David Bayles

  Art, Irritation, Giving

  David Bayles, Ted Orland (2001). “Art & Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking”, p.14, Image Continuum Press

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• The cross is almost a distraction and false advertisement for God.

  Brian D. McLaren

  Crosses, Advertisements

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• Playing live is a lost art, and you don't see a lot of bands that go out and play the way the older bands do. It's a celebration, and a lot of people treat it like a commercial or a distraction.

  Corey Taylor

  Art, Play, People

  "Government and Go-Go : Conversations with Stone Sour and Slipknot’s Corey Taylor, and Chuck Brown". Interview with Mike Ragogna, www.huffingtonpost.com. September 17, 2010.

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• I was a captive and a slave. I loved Dora Spenlow to distraction! She was more than human to me. She was a Fairy, a Sylph, I dont know what she was--anything that no one ever saw, and everything that everybody ever wanted.

  David Copperfield

  Saws, Fairy, Slave

  David Copperfield “The Works of Charles Dickens”

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• You know, exams are like war -- the birth rate of ideas goes up. Anything to keep from this dismal regimen, says poor mind, and hopefully tosses up another distraction.

  James Tiptree Jr.

  War, Ideas, Birth Rate

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• Music can be a distraction and an escape. Sometimes a welcome escape. You need it. But music can also serve a very important social function because music can do things that mere prose, mere ordinary political agitation can't do.

  Howard Zinn

  Political, Important, Agitation

  "Interview with Howard Zinn: A People’s History of the United States". Interview with Sean Carswell and Todd Taylor, razorcake.org. October 18, 2001.

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• Teenagers talk about the idea of having each other's 'full attention.' They grew up in a culture of distraction. They remember their parents were on cell phones when they were pushed on swings as toddlers. Now, their parents text at the dinner table and don't look up from their BlackBerry when they come for end-of-school day pickup.

  Sherry Turkle

  Teenager, School, Phones

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• There is a Silence that is totally impersonal.
  It is not the fruit of anybody’s work.
  Peace is there, but there is no peacekeeper.
  This Peace is only known when the noise of the person is not present.
  In the absence of the 'person' there are no distractions.
  Only the ever-pure Awareness prevails.
  The Ultimate is nobody’s achievement at all.

  Mooji

  Silence, Achievement, Noise

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• Want to play some Battleship?” I wasn’t leaving him alone with that thing in there. Chad armed himself with a notebook, and we went to war. Historically, war has often been used as a distraction for problems at home.

  Patricia Briggs

  Notebook, War, Home

  Patricia Briggs (2011). “The Mercy Thompson Collection”, p.1106, Penguin

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• some of my happiest funniest times have been spent in offices. Perhaps because the work was mudane, even the tiniest of distractions become wildly hilarious and wonderful. Actually, I'd say that 90 per cent of my doubled-over-gasping-with-laughther-laughing-so-much-that-you-can't-breathe-and-you-think-you-might-die laughing has occurred during slow days in offices.

  Miranda Hart

  Thinking, Laughing, Office

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• For me, Savannah's resistance to change was its saving grace. The city looked inward, sealed off from the noises and distractions of the world at large. It grew inward, too, and in such a way that its people flourished like hothouse plants tended by an indulgent gardener. The ordinary became extraordinary. Eccentrics thrived. Every nuance and quirk of personality achieved greater brilliance in that lush enclosure than would have been possible anywhere else in the world.

  John Berendt

  Cities, People, Personality

  John Berendt (2010). “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil”, p.454, Vintage

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• He was my equal in beauty, a paragon of grace and charm, sparkling with wit, and burning with love. I adored him to distraction, to the point of idolatry: I loved him as one can never love twice.

  Voltaire

  Grace, Burning, Charm

  Voltaire (1956). “Candide: or, Optimism”

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• If I’d known Ashton wanted my attention at any point I would have pushed Nicole aside and given her my undivided attention. But most of the time she was wrapped in Sawyer’s arms and I needed the distraction Nicole provided.

  Abbi Glines

  Attention, Arms, Given

  Abbi Glines (2012). “The Vincent Boys”, p.12, Abbi Glines

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• I know how you guys feel about us. I'm not stupid, and believe me, I've tried to get you out of my head. But there isn't enough liquor or art or any other distraction in the world to do it. I had to stop going to Wolfe's because it was too hard being that close to you, even if it was all just pretend fighting. I couldn't stand the touching. It was agonizing because it meant something to me－and I knew it meant nothing to you. I kept telling myself to stay away altogether, and then I'd find excuses… like the car… anything to be around you again.

  Richelle Mead

  Art, Stupid, Believe

  Richelle Mead (2012). “The Golden Lily: A Bloodlines Novel”, p.323, Penguin

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• We may know that the work we continue to put off doing will be bad. Worse, however, is the work we never do. A work that’s finished is at least finished. It may be poor, but it exists, like the miserable plant in the lone flowerpot of my neighbour who’s crippled. That plant is her happiness, and sometimes it’s even mine. What I write, bad as it is, may provide some hurt or sad soul a few moments of distraction from something worse. That’s enough for me, or it isn’t enough, but it serves some purpose, and so it is with all of life.

  Fernando Pessoa

  Hurt, Writing, Soul

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