Nostalgia is a sweet place for a poet and writer to be in. But it’s an indulgence; a distraction. You can’t live in a distraction.
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.
As an artist, you have to maintain focus and eliminate the distraction of second-guessing yourself based on the opinions of others.
A certain number of people seek power over other people in a desperate attempt to find themselves. They fail, for self-discovery is spiritual in nature, not social or political. Authoritatively telling other people what to do is their distraction from an inner emptiness they can never fill.
Nuclear weapons remain a costly distraction from the real security threats we face, like climate change.
Radio is such a perfect medium for the transmission of poetry, primarily because there just is the voice, there’s no visual distraction.
I like it when people have good flow, but I also like it when people actually say stuff. Because sometimes that’s a very good distraction, like, to have impeccable flow, but you’re saying a lot without saying anything.
A puppy is the ultimate distraction.
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.
I’m not a media personality, I’m an actress. I want to protect that thing: the suspension of disbelief. The rest of it is just distraction.
We call on the P.R.C. to remain focused on supporting international efforts to combat the global pandemic and to stop exploiting the distraction or vulnerability of other states to expand its unlawful claims in the South China Sea.
It’s difficult when you have a new baby but, at the same time, a nice distraction.
Lord knows one can use a distraction during divorce, and it’s great to feel you are again successful on your own, with your own identity.
As for Twitter, I’ve found that you have to learn how to make it add value rather than subtract hours from one’s day. Certainly, it affords narcissism and distraction.
Reading good books is one distraction that will help you become a better writer. And writing – that’s the thing – writing is what will really make you a better writer. Write bad stories until you begin to write so-so stories, which might, if you keep at it, turn to writing good stories.
Sometimes I wish I never found the Internet. Sometimes I regret getting a laptop and Wi-Fi for logging into the Internet because it is such a distraction. If you have any addictive personality, the Internet will magnify it.
What happens when you get to the age of 60 is that you have no more doubts. I know why I’m here on this planet. I know what I need to do. I know what is a distraction and what isn’t.
Are you trivialising the sisterhood if you dye your hair or have your eyebrows threaded? I’d say the answer to that is no. But equally, it’s a perfectly valid feminist thing to say there is a certain amount of attention on a woman’s appearance, and I don’t wish that to be the focus or a distraction.
But I will add, there’s one thing I will not do, ever: I will never talk to you about things you cannot change. It plants a negativity in the head of a designer or the student, and it’s a distraction.
What matters is the team and all of us being focused on what we need to focus on, which is winning games, rather than contracts or any topics that can be a distraction. What matters is focusing on football.
Traditional economics is based on imaginary creatures sometimes referred to as ‘Homo economicus.’ I call them Econs for short. Econs are amazingly smart and are free of emotion, distraction or self-control problems. Think Mr. Spock from ‘Star Trek.’
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.
There are a lot of people who probably enjoyed ‘Conversations with Friends’ who are part of the system that is actively exploiting other people’s labour. I am sure there are landlords who read it and thought it was a great read. Am I happy that I have given those people 10 hours of distraction? Not really!
It’s very easy to get caught up in everything that’s going on and just daily stuff being a distraction. When you have all that taken away from you, your daily activity becomes a lot more subtle, and you appreciate it all a lot more.
I don’t have any of the modern electronics at all. I know the Internet would be a distraction. I would see things that interested me and never get back to writing.
No Child Left Behind’s fourth-grade gains aren’t learning gains, they’re testing gains. That’s why they don’t last. The law is a distraction from things that really count.
The majority of Americans, the ones who never elected George W. Bush, are not fooled by his weapons of mass distraction.
I think what does influence you when you are going up against Rory and Tiger is the crowd, there’s a lot more people milling around, there’s more cameras and more distraction, and that’s what makes it more difficult.
Materialism is the only form of distraction from true bliss.
I think there is only one way to write fiction – alone, in a room, without interruption or any distraction.
There’s nothing like the peace of the countryside, the quiet and the lack of distraction. It helps you to focus your mind.
I have wandered all my life, and I have also traveled; the difference between the two being this, that we wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment.
He was so tenacious he defied the distraction of women by refusing to have them in his presence, just as later in life he denied his blindness by calling for more and more candles.
My focus are only films. There is something special about films as when it is being played in a dark theatre, the audience is watching only you. Whereas in TV there are a lot distraction.
Of course, women have long exercised influence behind the scenes. A few thousand years ago this drove Aristotle to distraction: ‘What difference does it make whether women rule or the rulers are ruled by women? The result is the same.’
I never listen to music when I write. It’s too much of a distraction.
The Internet is just bringing all kinds of information into the home. There’s just a lot of distraction, a lot of competition for the parent’s voice to resonate in the children’s ears.
I think that we can often be eating and not even really acknowledging that we are putting something about our mouths. I think there is lot to be said about eating dinner and not having the distraction of the TV.
At times, training at home is a distraction, so training in Big Bear was a really good change.
In one sense, Obama’s point couldn’t be clearer: race is a distraction from class-based inequities. And if we dismiss working-class resentment as camouflaged racism, we will continue to be distracted by the spectre of race.
Spanish Harlem is like every ghetto in America. There’s every distraction possible. To make it up out of there is really a task itself.
I could have become a distraction, pointed fingers, complained, or I could have just worked hard and been prepared, knowing I’m one play from getting in. And that’s the road I’ve taken.
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.
Sport instils discipline, and it’s a distraction.
I think the best thing I can do is to be a distraction. A husband lives and breathes his work all day long. If he comes home to more table thumping, how can the poor man ever relax?
Creating a distraction is a skill we should all have. Never take for granted your ability to spot something interesting out of the corner of you eye and take attention away from your thoughtlessness.
Nothing changes and very little happens in Paris. This is a great place to work without distraction – and then I run away to New York, where I have a life!
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.
A stronger focus on quality public policymaking and less distraction of personalities would be a sufficient and important contribution I can make.
Anything that we do to make ourselves feel worthy and safe is a flight from the pain of powerlessness. Every pursuit of external power – every attempt to change the world or a person in order to make yourself feel valuable and safe – is a distraction from the pain of powerlessness.
Your billion-dollar ideas don’t show up in the middle of dramatic distraction. They show up when you have the business and personal discipline to make space for your creative mind to flourish.
You can always find a distraction if you’re looking for one.
Deleting 200 spams a day is a drag. And I was checking my email constantly, rather than getting on with my real work, which is reading and writing. Email was becoming a distraction, a burden rather than a liberation.
