#distraction

If you get stuck, get away from your desk. Take a walk, take a bath, go to sleep, make a pie, draw, listen to ­music, meditate, exercise; whatever you do, don't just stick there scowling at the problem. But don't make telephone calls or go to a party; if you do, other people's words will pour in where your lost words should be. Open a gap for them, create a space. Be patient." [The Guardian, 25 February 2010] ↗

— Hilary Mantel

#distraction #inspiration #openness #problem-solving #procrastination

He makes His ministers a flame of fire. Am I ignitable? God deliver me from the dread asbestos of ‘other things’. ↗

— Elisabeth Elliot

#passion #life

Work is hard. Distractions are plentiful. And time is short. ↗

— Adam Hochschild

#distractions #hard #plentiful #short #work

She told me she loved me. She told me a lot of things. Some of those things were true, and some of those may or may not have been true. It’s kind of hard to tell, because to be honest, I wasn’t listening.
 ↗

— Dark Jar Tin Zoo

#distracted #distraction #funny #humor #listening

I got in and started the engine, also turning on the radio. When the music began I wished that there might be more switches to turn on, for it was somehow not enough. ↗

— Saul Bellow

#music

Art is the fatal net which catches these strange moments on the wing like mysterious butterflies, fleeing the innocence and distraction of common men. ↗

— Giorgio de Chirico

#butterflies #catches #common #distraction #fatal

The REM and Nirvana successes don't mean much to me except as a potential distraction for bands who want to cash in on the trend. Don't try to sound like someone else. REM and Nirvana don't sound like anyone else. ↗

— Greg Ginn

#bands #cash #distraction #else #except

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. ↗

— Jonathan Kozol

#child #count #distraction #gains #last

It should be clear by now that my focus here is not freedom of speech or the press. This freedom is all too often an exaggeration. At the very least, blind references to freedom of speech or the press serve as a distraction from the critical examination of other communications policies. ↗

— Mark Lloyd

#clear #communications #critical #distraction #exaggeration

The avoiding, in many times and places, has proved so difficult that a very large part of the human race failed to achieve it. But in our own time and place it is extremely easy. Avoid silence, avoid solitude, avoid any train of thought that leads off the beaten track. Concentrate on money, sex, status, health and (above all) on your own grievances. Keep the radio on. Live in a crowd. Use plenty of sedation. If you must read books, select them very carefully, but you’d be safer to stick to the papers. You’ll find the advertisements helpful; especially those with a sexy or snobbish appeal. ↗

— C.S. Lewis

#distraction #god #spiritual-intimacy #money