To get the most out of the world around you you’ve got to really look hard. Most people out walking in the woods don’t really look. They just glance around. They scan. Before I start a painting I spend a lot of time looking and thinking, I go out in the car and pull a chair out of the boot and sit in the woods. I sit there and smoke and just look.
What is the part of your job that people would be surprised is most of your job?
Question
What is one of the best or most worthwhile investments you have ever made — of money, time, or energy?
Money & investment
Question
What does the first sixty minutes of your day look like?
Daily life
On the best days, I stop pleading, stop bargaining and watch-checking and fall into a rhythm so satisfying that I simply forget I’m working. So much of my writing day feels like well-digging. Sometimes I dig 200ft down before coming back up, dry. Every day I search for water.
The Guardian, 'My writing day' series, 28 October 2017 source ↗
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David Hockney
Painter, draughtsman, printmaker and photographer
Recorded
The National, Interview in the courtyard of the Royal Academy, London, The National, 1 January 2012
source ↗
Marjane Satrapi
Graphic novelist, cartoonist and film director
Now my job is to defend everybody. But I don’t mind. Because I travel, and I like to talk to people and really listen to them. And I have no prejudices. I figured out a long time ago that, whatever I think I know, I don’t know anything. Once I realized that, I really started learning. That’s a great strength: I know that I don’t know.
Recorded
Joshuah Bearman, A brasserie near her studio, Paris, The Believer, Issue 36, 1 August 2006
source ↗
Arsène Wenger
French football manager; Arsenal 1996–2018; FIFA Chief of Global Football Development
A good coach is somebody who has a clear concept of what they want and what they love in the game, is capable of expressing it in an understandable way, and is able to obtain it on the football pitch. They're also someone who loves to help others. This means something more than just going out and coaching a session, they really try to understand who a player is and find the key to helping them. All players have different problems, and we have the capacity to help them solve them. That's why this is a very interesting aspect of being a coach, we have the chance to be capable to influence people's lives.
Geoffrey Rush
Australian actor
I am being careful not to clutter my life with career administration so I can keep the focus on the acting.
Recorded
Richard Mowe, Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, Eye For Film, 6 July 2022
source ↗
More from Yaa Gyasi
View profile →The desk helps, now that I have it. I’ve stacked piles of books that I love on it to act as talismans. They help, too. The desk makes me feel like I’m going to work, even though work is located in a cramped but bright corner of my living room. […] I used to think of myself as someone with a great deal of discipline, but I lost it in the air somewhere over the Rocky Mountains. Now, instead of discipline, I have a desk, and every day that I sit at it I dig a little deeper.
Usually, my irrational bargaining goes something like this: I start working at around 10 if I’m feeling motivated, 11 if I’m not. I reread the work from the day before and/or passages that I think I got right in order to try to set the tone. I write a sentence. I read it aloud. I delete the sentence. I look at the clock and wonder if it’s too early to think about lunch. I tell myself that, if I can make it to 300 words, I can break for lunch.
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