In my studio, it is unkempt and unattractive. Once I’m in my work, I don’t notice where I am.

Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.

Work is of two kinds: first, altering the position of matter at or near the earth’s surface relative to other matter; second, telling other people to do so.

90 percent of my time is spent on 10 percent of the world.

The first four and a half years was me in the studio every day, writing songs for other people. I had jobs, too – eleven jobs. I worked at Kinko’s, Fatburger, Subway – I was a sandwich artist – and I was a claims processor at Allstate Insurance.

As for me, prizes are nothing. My prize is my work.

The world is full of willing people; some willing to work, the rest willing to let them.

Concentration is one of the happiest things in my life.

The best work is not what is most difficult for you; it is what you do best.

Let the future tell the truth, and evaluate each one according to his work and accomplishments. The present is theirs; the future, for which I have really worked, is mine.

All art really does is keep you focused on questions of humanity, and it really is about how do we get on with our maker.

Many people mistake our work for our vocation. Our vocation is the love of Jesus.

I’m a writer, not a professional runner. It’s fun and it helps me write. I need powerful concentration.

I am the center of attention in my job every single day; the thought of a wedding to me is exhausting. Why would I put myself through that?

I wanted to be a doctor that I might be able to work without having to talk because for years I had been giving myself out in words.

I’m never on Twitter. I’m never on Instagram. And that’s not by choice: it’s just that those things never really interested me. I might post a picture here and there, but that ain’t really been my focus.

If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll never get it done.

Work is a necessary evil to be avoided.

Work alone is noble.

When I’m in the studio, I’m looking for creativity I haven’t matched yet, a feeling I haven’t felt. It’s a high.

I am in the fighting game. I don’t care about anything else. I don’t watch the news, I don’t care about politics, I don’t care about other sports. I don’t care about anything I don’t need to care about. This is my sport: it is my life. I study it; I think about it all the time. Nothing else matters.

There are so many emotions that you’re feeling, you can get stifled by them if you’re feeling them all at once. What I try to do is take one moment – one simple, simple feeling – and expand it into three-and-a-half minutes.

I have learned, in my life and work as a sportswriter, that big-time Sports and big-time Politics are not so far apart in America. They are both a means to the same end, which is victory… And why not? Victory is good for you, and don’t let anybody tell you different.

Work is making a living out of being bored.

If I went to work in a factory the first thing I’d do is join a union.

In the divine milieu, all the elements of the universe touch each other by that which is most inward and ultimate in them. There they concentrate, little by little, all that is purest and most attractive in them without loss and without danger of subsequent corruption.

Like my friend Warren Buffett, I feel particularly lucky to do something every day that I love to do. He calls it ‚tap-dancing to work.‘

The Internet is a big distraction.

Sometimes, I think if you get away from what you’re called to do, it’s more of a distraction.

It isn’t enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn’t enough to believe in it. One must work at it.

Individuality is founded in feeling; and the recesses of feeling, the darker, blinder strata of character, are the only places in the world in which we catch real fact in the making, and directly perceive how events happen, and how work is actually done.

Nothing is so discouraging to an actor than to have to work for long hours upon hours in brightly lighted interior sets.

When you go on your Twitter or look down your Timeline and it’s all great positivity – I love that. But at the same time, it can really divert you from what your purpose is or what you’re trying to do. And I’ve seen artists get caught up in that.

A lot of people from my generation of music are so focused on playing things correctly or to perfection that they’re stuck in that safe place.

I will never retire unless I have to.

In action a great heart is the chief qualification. In work, a great head.

Concentration of executive power, unless it’s very temporary and for specific circumstances, let’s say fighting world war two, it’s an assault on democracy.

When a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.

It’s good to wander into the studio and walk out with something that’s better than you’d imagined it to be. If everything was as you imagined it to be, it just wouldn’t be as much fun.

If you have the insight of non-self, if you have the insight of impermanence, you should make that insight into a concentration that you keep alive throughout the day. Then what you say, what you think, and what you do will then be in the light of that wisdom and you will avoid making mistakes and creating suffering.

I want to do a certain thing in the world, and I am going to do it with unwavering concentration. I am concerning myself with only one essential thing: to set man free. I desire to free him from all cages, from all fears, and not to found religions, new sects, nor to establish new theories and new philosophies.

Never neglect details. When everyone’s mind is dulled or distracted the leader must be doubly vigilant.

Competition gives me energy. It keeps me focused.

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

When I am working on a book or a story, I write every morning as soon after first light as possible. There is no one to disturb you, and it is cool or cold, and you come to your work and warm as you write.

In T20, you don’t have time to get distracted – it’s so quick, you have to run around in the field, and while batting, you don’t actually think about anything else.

Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.

Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.

For victory in life, we’ve got to keep focused on the goal, and the goal is Heaven.

Realize deeply that the present moment is all you ever have. Make the Now the primary focus of your life.

I was trying to daydream, but my mind kept wandering.

The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.

Let me tell you something about Tunechi – about that boy. That boy comes to the studio every day and grind as if he doesn’t have a dollar in his pocket.

The worst disease which can afflict executives in their work is not, as popularly supposed, alcoholism; it’s egotism.

Elegance is achieved when all that is superfluous has been discarded and the human being discovers simplicity and concentration: the simpler and more sober the posture, the more beautiful it will be.

To be successful, a woman has to be much better at her job than a man.

ESPN is a great organization to work for.

I have the ’77 Million Paintings‘ running in my studio a lot of the time. Occasionally I’ll look up from what I’m doing and I think, ‚God, I’ve never seen anything like that before!‘ And that’s a real thrill.

I think New York has evolved in my work just the way the city has.

When I write, the story is always uppermost in my mind, and I feel that everything must be sacrificed to it. All elegant passages, all the curious details, all the so-called beautiful writing – if they are not truly relevant to what I am trying to say, then they have to go.

Well, I thought the deal was, when you went to work for the government you weren’t supposed to make money!