Richard Ford: In the last five years, what have you become better at saying no to?

Recorded Richard Ford said elsewhere, not written here

Don’t read your reviews. […] Don’t write reviews. (Your judgment’s always tainted.) […] Don’t write letters to the editor. (No one cares.)

The Guardian Review, 20 February 2010 source ↗

Others on this question

Zadie Smith Novelist and essayist

Protect the time and space in which you write. Keep everybody away from it, even the people who are most important to you.

Recorded The Guardian Review, 20 February 2010 source ↗

Serena Williams United States professional tennis player, 1995–2022

But these days, if I have to choose between building my tennis résumé and building my family, I choose the latter.

Recorded First-person essay, Vogue September 2022 issue, 9 August 2022 source ↗

Derek Sivers Founder of CD Baby; author of Anything You Want

When deciding whether to do something, if you feel anything less than “Wow! That would be amazing! Absolutely! Hell yeah!” — then say no.

Recorded Essay on sive.rs, Derek Sivers, 26 August 2009 source ↗

Peter Doherty Veterinary surgeon and immunologist; Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine, 1996

On returning to Brisbane, I realised fairly quickly that I am an experimentalist at heart. A career as a diagnostic virologist was not for me!

Recorded Laureate-written autobiography for Les Prix Nobel, Nobel Prize Outreach, 1 December 1996 source ↗

Marry somebody you love and who thinks you being a writer’s a good idea.

Recorded The Guardian Review, 20 February 2010 source ↗

Search the directory for somebody in particular.