I am so busy doing nothing… that the idea of doing anything – which as you know, always leads to something – cuts into the nothing and then forces me to have to drop everything.

Surely a long life must be somewhat tedious, since we are forced to call in so many trifling things to help rid us of our time, which will never return.

I’m bloody awful at multi-tasking.

I am results-oriented.

We always have time enough, if we will but use it aright.

I don’t do meetings.

There’s people constantly asking you for something on set, so the multi-tasking of motherhood transfers very well to being a director. And I think you’re compassionate.

I definitely connected to the fact that life gets out of control and you end up doing things and wishing you were doing other things instead.

Move fast and break things. Unless you are breaking stuff, you are not moving fast enough.

Success in life is founded upon attention to the small things rather than to the large things; to the every day things nearest to us rather than to the things that are remote and uncommon.

By the time you get dressed, drive out there, play 18 holes and come home, you’ve blown seven hours. There are better things you can do with your time.

Labor gives birth to ideas.

Do Lipton employees take coffee breaks?

Procrastination is the bad habit of putting off until the day after tomorrow what should have been done the day before yesterday.

Time you enjoy wasting, was not wasted.

If you can’t sleep, then get up and do something instead of lying there worrying. It’s the worry that gets you, not the lack of sleep.

I’m very much into making lists and breaking things apart into categories.

A fortunate author can write maybe twelve novels in his lifetime.

The military can buy our diplomats some time.

So many writers don’t like to write… I like to write, and sometimes I’m afraid I like it too much, because when I get into work, I don’t want to leave it. And as a result, I’ll go for days and days and days without leaving my house.

I believe every human has a finite number of heartbeats. I don’t intend to waste any of mine.

A man is relieved and gay when he has put his heart into his work and done his best; but what he has said or done otherwise shall give him no peace.

Always do whatever’s next.

Hardly any human being is capable of pursuing two professions or two arts rightly.

I’ve spent too much time giving speeches, traveling the world.

I’ve been on a calendar, but I’ve never been on time.

Comfort and luxury are usually the chief requirements of life for your ego – its top priorities tend to be accumulations, achievements, and the approval of others.

A child thinks 20 shillings and 20 years can scarce ever be spent.

Sometimes you can’t prioritise family and you feel guilty.

Well begun is half done.

Don’t wait. The time will never be just right.

The wise man should restrain his senses like the crane and accomplish his purpose with due knowledge of his place, time and ability.

There are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy and the tired.

Learn to say ‚no‘ to the good so you can say ‚yes‘ to the best.

Time is the friend of the wonderful company, the enemy of the mediocre.

When I stop working the rest of the day is posthumous. I’m only really alive when I’m writing.

Business is never so healthy as when, like a chicken, it must do a certain amount of scratching around for what it gets.

I have a theory that the truth is never told during the nine-to-five hours.

It is better to live rich than to die rich.

The eye of the master will do more work than both his hands.

Women in particular need to keep an eye on their physical and mental health, because if we’re scurrying to and from appointments and errands, we don’t have a lot of time to take care of ourselves. We need to do a better job of putting ourselves higher on our own ‚to do‘ list.

I can’t say that my disability has helped my work, but it has allowed me to concentrate on research without having to lecture or sit on boring committees.

Leisure is the time for doing something useful. This leisure the diligent person will obtain the lazy one never.

There is nothing wrong with men possessing riches. The wrong comes when riches possess men.

It is no good getting furious if you get stuck. What I do is keep thinking about the problem but work on something else. Sometimes it is years before I see the way forward. In the case of information loss and black holes, it was 29 years.

The expectations of life depend upon diligence; the mechanic that would perfect his work must first sharpen his tools.

I have no time to think about other writers. I am too busy with my own problems.

Men do less than they ought, unless they do all that they can.

The only way to be sure of catching a train is to miss the one before it.

Nine-tenths of wisdom is being wise in time.

People who enjoy meetings should not be in charge of anything.

I tweet in the morning and the evening. To write 12 hours a day, there is a moment when you’re really tired. It’s my relaxing time.

You can write a short story in two hours. Two hours a day, you have a novel in a year.

Friends are thieves of time.

The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.

When you have to make a choice and don’t make it, that is in itself a choice.

No, there is literally nothing on the business side that I wouldn’t sacrifice in a heartbeat to have an extra couple of hours‘ writing. Nothing.

Your life must be a progression towards ownership – first mentally of your independence, and then physically of your work, owning what you produce.

We live in a time-crunched world, and just about everything we do seems to be urgent.

I didn’t work hard to sit down and not work.

Tomorrow is nothing, today is too late; the good lived yesterday.