When you feel overwhelmed or unfocused, what do you do?
Recorded Neil Gaiman said elsewhere, not written here
And when things get tough, this is what you should do. Make good art. I’m serious. Husband runs off with a politician? Make good art. Leg crushed and then eaten by mutated boa constrictor? Make good art. IRS on your trail? Make good art. Cat exploded? Make good art. Somebody on the Internet thinks what you do is stupid or evil or it’s all been done before? Make good art. Probably things will work out somehow, and eventually time will take the sting away, but that doesn’t matter. Do what only you do best. Make good art.

134th Commencement, University of the Arts, Philadelphia, University of the Arts (uarts.edu), via the Internet Archive, 17 May 2012 source ↗

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Simone Biles United States artistic gymnast
Yes. Today has been really stressful. We had a workout this morning. It went okay. And then just that five and a half hour wait or something. I was just shaking, could barely nap. I've just never felt like this going into a competition before. And I tried to go out here and have fun. And warm up in the back went a little bit better. But then once I came out here, I was like, "No, mental is not there. So I just need to let the girls do it and focus on myself."
Recorded Post-competition press conference, Ariake Gymnastics Centre, Tokyo Olympics, Rev, 27 July 2021 source ↗
Yo-Yo Ma Cellist
While I’m on stage, you are all my guests, because that’s sort of the unsaid agreement. While you’re my guest, if something bad happens on stage, I often think of Julia Child, “Oh, the chicken’s fallen on the floor! Yes. Oh, well pick it up and put it right back.” And you know what? Everybody’s with you. […] So whatever you practice for on the engineering side that fails is all right, because we have a greater purpose. The greater purpose is that we’re communing together and we want this moment to be really special for all of us. Because otherwise, why bother to have come at all? It’s not about proving anything. It’s about sharing something.
Recorded Krista Tippett, On Being, published July 2018, On Being (The On Being Project), 1 July 2018 source ↗
Margaret Atwood Novelist, poet and critic
Don’t sit down in the middle of the woods. If you’re lost in the plot or blocked, retrace your steps to where you went wrong. Then take the other road. And/or change the person. Change the tense. Change the opening page.
Recorded The Guardian Review, 20 February 2010 source ↗
Brian Eno Composer, record producer and visual artist
My favorite method is stopping everything for a moment. It’s amazing how difficult I find it these days to simply sit quietly.
Recorded Max Dax, Eno's London studio, 2011, Telekom Electronic Beats, 1 January 2011 source ↗

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