Writing is the process of finding something to distract you from writing, and of all the helpful distractions - adultery, alcohol and acedia, all of which aided our writing fathers - none can equal the Internet.
Adam Gopnik
Work is hard. Distractions are plentiful. And time is short.
Adam Hochschild
It's the same thing as a competitor with anything whether it be a play, an injury, a distraction. You just put it behind you, you take the situation for what it is and you control what you control and the people that do that the best are usually the more successful team, person, individual, what have you.
Adam Thielen
I write four books a year. I'm very fortunate that I write quickly; around 3,500 words a day. Being strict about delineating my writing time and personal life, as well as keeping distractions at bay, is the only way I can accomplish this.
Alexander McCall Smith
The difference between face-to-face conversation and any other medium of communication is simple: No distractions are permitted.
Alexandra Petri
Whatever career you are in, you always have other distractions.
Alun Wyn Jones
I just want to try to ignore the scrutiny and all the distractions and just play hard basketball and let the best come... Improving game by game and trying to improve my game is what I want to do.
Andrew Bogut
Being a founder is about being so driven to distraction by the world that you want to put something new in it. It's an act of creation, of irreverence, of defiance, of hope, and arguably one of narcissism.
Andy Dunn
I never want to make the quarterback feel like I'm being a distraction or I've got any negativity toward him.
Antonio Brown
Anyone who has tried to build something that changes people's lives sometimes finds life to be a distraction, and finds people who don't care as much as they do to be annoying.
Ashton Kutcher
Every role is a potential lover. I ask: Are they someone I want to wake up to in the morning and go to bed with at night? Do they question my assumptions about life? Consume me to distraction? Make my cry, then clown to make me laugh again? If I say yes, then it's all I need.
Aunjanue Ellis
Bad influences and distractions were around every corner. But I also learned that my neighborhood could be a nurturing, positive place to grow up.
Ayanna Pressley
I know that campaigns can seem small, and even silly. Trivial things become big distractions. Serious issues become sound bites. And the truth gets buried under an avalanche of money and advertising. If you're sick of hearing me approve this message, believe me - so am I.
Barack Obama
America is addicted to wars of distraction.
Barbara Ehrenreich
Pat Moynihan could write books with one hand and legislate with the other. I can't; I have a short attention span. The slightest distraction would take me away from writing.
Barney Frank
I love New York. I was sad, depressed and incredibly moved by our fellow countrymen and what they've done. I wanted to give people a chance to see something funny, have a distraction.
Ben Stiller
The most obvious drawback of social media is that they are aggressive distractions.
Bill Keller
Radio is such a perfect medium for the transmission of poetry, primarily because there just is the voice, there's no visual distraction.
Billy Collins
I had earlier concluded that a war with Iraq would be a distraction from the successful and expeditious completion of our aims in Afghanistan. Now I had come to question whether the White House was telling the truth.
Bob Graham
We did a two month tour with Taj Mahal that was really healing and cathartic and a good distraction after my brother passed away. Then I knew I wanted to take a year off, and it was really nice to have that chance to fall apart.
Bonnie Raitt
Sometimes entrepreneurs, successful people, need to put their blinders back on. They're losing their day to distraction, to faulty obligations.
Having seen first-hand how complex and difficult the job is, I believe it vital that the president be able to focus on his never-ending tasks with as few distractions as possible.
Wrestling kept me sane during dental school. That was the hardest time of my life, and I don't know how I would have made it without the distractions of wrestling to keep me afloat.
One of the points about distractions is that everything that they do is destabilizing.
Social media is a giant distraction to the ultimate aim, which is honing your craft as a songwriter. There are people who are exceptional at it, however, and if you can do both things, then that's fantastic, but if you are a writer, the time is better spent on a clever lyric than a clever tweet.
Life in the NBA can be one big constant distraction, especially when you're on the road. You're always moving from one place to the next, always on the phone, checking texts, social media, all of that stuff. It takes you out of yourself.
My life and focus are my children, and caring for my mother with her health issues. So when I'm with my friends I want to enjoy their company and not get wrapped up in the distractions.
At times, training at home is a distraction, so training in Big Bear was a really good change.
Research has shown that time pressure leads to tunnel vision and that people think more creatively when they are calm, unhurried and free from stress and distractions. We all know this from experience.
When you don't have a support system, and you're constantly being bullied for who you are, and you begin to not accept yourself for who you are, it's a distraction from schoolwork. It's a distraction from learning and from growing.
Nuclear weapons remain a costly distraction from the real security threats we face, like climate change.
There's no writer's block; there's only distraction.
I do all my shopping on the Web. I do much of my research online. I have a blog, too. It is definitely a distraction. It is definitely a blessing. What blessing isn't a distraction, though?
Girls were always my biggest distraction in school.
In many cases, people who win a Nobel prize, their work slows down after that because of the distractions. Yes, fame is rewarding, but it's a pity if it keeps you from doing the work you are good at.
Like most writers, I find the Web is a wonderful distraction. Who doesn't need that last minute research before writing?
Everyone's entitled to their opinion about my father. Some people think he's a distraction and takes some of my shine away, but, for me, that's not the case.
Live Twitter can be built right into the main Twitter app, but it should certainly have its own tab so we can concentrate on the live experience free of distraction.
We go to the movies to forget about time, to be in a dream state. And it's entertainment, distraction, from the fact that everything is kind of crumbling in front of our eyes.
I'm happiest when I'm with my daughter and I don't have any distractions with my phone going off.
By prevailing over all obstacles and distractions, one may unfailingly arrive at his chosen goal or destination.
Many parents and teachers have become irritated to the point of distraction at the way the weed-style growth of 'like' has spread through the idiom of the young. And it's true that in some cases the term has become simultaneously a crutch and a tic, driving out the rest of the vocabulary as candy expels vegetables.
People don't want their lives fixed. Nobody wants their problems solved. Their dramas. Their distractions. Their stories resolved. Their messed cleaned up. Because what would they have left? Just the big scary unknown.
Obstruction can be caused by so many factors - perfectionism, distraction, faltering confidence, external demands and pressures. At some point, of course, you've got to push through it all if you're to write, and if you don't, or can't, you're sunk.
You have a number of choices. You could continue to always fight against people who are really distractions. They're people in the cheap seats of life. Or you can do what you went there to do.
Your to-do list should include items that need to be accomplished for the month, the week, and each day. You must then ask yourself how much time you need to block off to achieve each task. Time blocking allows you to minimize distractions and to maximize your efficiency as you work to complete this list.
Going to the Portland Trail Blazers, who actually took the time to invest in me, was perhaps the best thing that ever happened to me in my career. I got to a small market where I could focus on basketball, basketball, basketball. No distractions.
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.
Clever gimmicks of mass distraction yield a cheap soulcraft of addicted and self-medicated narcissists.
Prior to my arrival at the Crowne Plaza in Indianapolis, my agent and I decided that it would be best not to participate in any drills at the combine. We wanted to wait until my pro day at Virginia, where I could limit the distractions and just focus on being my best.
