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I go through periods where I work a great deal at all hours of the day whenever I am around a typewriter, and then I go through spells where I don't do anything. I just sort of have lunch - all day. I never have been able to stick to a schedule. I work when there is something due or when I am really excited about a piece.
Nora Ephron
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Interpretation

What this quote means

This quote highlights the unpredictable nature of creativity and the non-linear approach to productivity.

Nora Ephron reflects on her fluctuating work habits, acknowledging that her productivity is often driven by deadlines or bursts of excitement rather than a consistent schedule. She embraces the realities of creative work, suggesting that it does not conform to conventional structures and instead thrives on inspiration and necessity.

Themes

CreativityProductivityInspirationScheduleWork

In practice

Example use cases

In a speech about creative processes at a writers' conference, this quote could illustrate the diverse working styles of authors.

More from Nora Ephron

Reading is the unbelievably healthy way _x000D_ my attention deficit disorder medicates itself. _x000D_ Reading is escape, and the opposite of escape; it's a way to _x000D_ make contact with reality after a day of making things up.
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Reading makes me feel I've accomplished something, learned something, become a better person. ... Reading is bliss.
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I just want to go on making movies, and some of them will be completely meaningless, except, of course, to me.
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Every so often I would look at my women friends who were happily married and didn't cook, and I would always find myself wondering how they did it. Would anyone love me if I couldn't cook? I always thought cooking was part of the package: Step right up, it's Rachel Samstat, she's bright, she's funny and she can cook!
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Marriages come and go, but divorce is forever.
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What I love about cooking is that after a hard day, there is something comforting about the fact that if you melt butter and add flour and then hot stock, it will get thick! It's a sure thing! It's a sure thing in a world where nothing is sure; it has a mathematical certainty in a world where those of us who long for some kind of certainty are forced to settle for crossword puzzles.
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