Quotes About Making Something Work

#1. I look at it scene-by-scene. Whether it's a historical character or not, whatever, on the page is one thing and delving into the history or somebody is one thing, but making something work for an audience in front of a camera is another exercise and you bring whatever authenticity you can to it.

Gary Cole

#2. The secret of making something work in your lives is first of all, the deep desire to make it work; then the faith and belief that it can work; then to hold that clear definite vision in your consciousness and see it working out step by step, without one thought of doubt or disbelief.

Eileen Caddy

#3. I made a pleasant discovery. You work hard at something eight hours a day, you get better. Not a lot better necessarily, but a little better, and that's just fine, because improving at golf, or anything else probably, is just a matter of making an endless series of tiny improvements.

James Patterson

#4. If you work for the federal government, the average salary is $7,000 higher than the private sector. Something's wrong with that, when you're making more money working for the government than you can working in the private sector.

Jesse Ventura

#5. Truth is not always about pragmatic problem solving and making things "work," but about reconciling contradictions. Just because something might have some dire effects does not mean it is not true or even good. Just because something pleases people does not make it true either.

Richard Rohr

#6. Doing something you enjoy at times of your own choosing and making a living from it: now tell me, is that work?

Tom Hodgkinson

#7. I think the biggest thing is just making sure that you do the work that you connect with, personally, and that you do work where you can really bring something to the table. It's just about being truthful to yourself.

Susanna White

#8. My workplace is wherever I'm making something, which could be in a field in gold country, or in an abandoned warehouse on a military base.

Adam Savage

#9. I'm free of stress and worries now because if I don't like something I'm doing, I just find the fun in it instead of being miserable. Let me have fun with the people I work with, let me have fun making money - when I grew up so poor, ya know?

Jenny McCarthy

#10. If your job is not making a difference in this world, by all means, get out there and find something else ... You'll find a sense of making a difference through your work if you simply look for it.

John C. Maxwell

#11. When I make my work, I am making what I hope to be something functional - a space for individual contemplation and reflection. I want my art to be useful.

Bill Viola

#12. Writing and making films aren't different things to me. Or maybe it has become so, now. Making film is a very long process and you have to be physically strong. The literary work is more mystical, because it's only the writer, and connected to something inside.

Abdellah Taia

#13. I feel like my best work is in front of me. I'm in the studio now, and I'm having an amazing time making this new album. It's something I can't help.

Lenny Kravitz

#14. The first rule of making progress in anything you do is setting goals, allowing yourself to always have a finish line in sight. This provides a boost in motivation during those moments when slogging forward seems impossible, giving you something tangible to work towards at every moment.

T. Harv Eker

#15. Making a painting is like having sex for a month or something. Then I go through this period of elation at finishing the work. Then you drop off - you know, 'post-coital man is sad,' as the old saying goes.

Tim Zuck

#16. Whereas a good player might do something really good in a game, a great player might do something two or three times in a row. That's what great players do, but they also work incredibly hard off the field in terms of the extra effort they've put into making sure their own performance gets better.

Warren Gatland

#17. The reason people come to work for GE, they want to be apart of something bigger than themselves, they want to work for a company that makes a difference, a company that is doing great things in the world.

Jeffrey R. Immelt

#18. To make your Opinion Count,
you have to do something more
than just making Money.

Vineet Raj Kapoor

#19. A conclusion I've come to at the Idler is that it starts with retreating from work but it's really about making work into something that isn't drudgery and slavery, and then work and life can become one thing.

Tom Hodgkinson

#20. I'm lucky enough to be able to make films and so I don't need a psychiatrist. I can sort out my fears and all those things with my work. That's an enormous privilege. That's the privilege of all artists, to be able to sort out their unhappiness and their neuroses in order to create something.

Michael Haneke

#21. It's only when we can work with something that brings out our strengths that we're of any real use.

Henning Mankell

#22. Labor wants pride and joy in doing good work, a sense of making or doing something beautiful or useful - to be treated with dignity and respect as brother and sister.

Thorstein Veblen

#23. Writing is easy. Saying something that would make a difference is the task.

Aleksandra Ninkovic

#24. I don't mind trying it out and making sure something seems to work well.

David Bowie

#25. When you're making something big, whether it's long-form fiction or a big piece of software, whatever that is, you're having a very intimate and extended conversation with the work materials themselves.

David Wroblewski

#26. I learned a valuable life lesson that summer. You should find something in life that you really enjoy and seriously consider making that your life's work.

Jim Evans

#27. If I read a script and find it engaging and I start making choices in my mind on how to approach the work, than that's a good indication that it is something worth pursuing.

Karl Urban

#28. Accepting trial and error means accepting error. It means taking problems in our stride when a decision doesn't work out, whether through luck or misjudgment. And that is not something human brains seem to be able to do without a struggle.

Tim Harford

#29. I work in my study, taking the collections of words that people send me and making small adjustments to them, changing something here and there, checking everything is in order and putting a part of myself into the text by introducing just a little bit of difference. ("Substitutions")

Michael Marshall Smith

#30. I always feel like it's two key ingredients when it comes to following your dreams, making something happen that the average person deems difficult. If you truly believe it, that's step one. Step two, is, you know, the hard work that goes along with it.

J. Cole

#31. If I want Callie to grow up to be a smart, strong woman, someone who values family and friends, and respects herself, I have to show her. If I want her to know the satisfaction of making something of herself with effort and work, I have to show her.

Nora Roberts

#32. I think something I've been drawn to about the people I work with is that they seem to be - like me - people who are a little insane, and have to make music. It's not a choice they're making for the sake of vanity - like it's cool to be in a band.

Ariel Rechtshaid

#33. I'm by no means an expert at giving advice on depression, but I would say that a lot of my show is about making the decision to be happy. We all think that happiness is something that just falls into our lap. But it's something you have to really work on.

Lilly Singh

#34. Only 10 percent of people who go to art school will still be making art in 10 years. To some extent, you have to want to do it. It's hard. It is something you really have to stick with for it to work.

Jeffrey Brown

#35. There are a million people who can come up with little bits. The hard work is making those bits into something.

Jeff Lynne

#36. Acting and the industry of making movies is beautiful, but it's so exhausting and such hard work; if you don't absolutely 100% want to do something, it defeats the purpose.

Debby Ryan

#37. I love to tell stories and I love to work with directors and I think I write really visually, which I think directors like, and I love making movies, so I found something that I'm good at and I'm really happy doing.

John Orloff

#38. Usually, making excuses is just something we can get away with, rather than challenging or changing ourselves. If you want to change and you want your life to work at a level you've never had before, then take responsibility for it.

Wayne Dyer

#39. Making the process better, easier, and cheaper is an important aspiration, something we continually work on - but it is not the goal. Making something great is the goal.

Ed Catmull

#40. A man at work, making something which he feels will exist because he is working at it and wills it, is exercising the energies of his mind and soul as well as of his body. Memory and imagination help him as he works.

William Morris

#41. I usually work with the director and it's just a collaboration between me and the one person. I think you make good movies that way. If the director and the composer can have this common goal and this excitement about making something great, then you're going to do something good.

Howard Shore

#42. Just getting something to work usually means writing reams of code fast, like a Stephen King novel, but making it maintainable and high-quality code that really expresses the ideas well, is like writing poetry. Art is taking away.

Erik Naggum

#43. It's rare that I'm not at work on some sort of craft project. I've often enthused about the need to make things; how it employs a unique set of muscles - physical, intellectual, spiritual - that I can attain a state of flow when making something that I almost never can when writing.

David Rakoff

#44. I have said as much as that the aim of art was to destroy the curse of labour by making work the pleasurable satisfaction of our impulse towards energy, and giving to that energy hope of producing something worth its exercise.

William Morris

#45. I believe that music is about making quality things, making quality art, and no matter who you decide to work with, you and that person have to come up with something special, come up with something that is excellent material, so whoever hears it and reviews it will like it.

Common

#46. Find something you love to do. If you don't make money at it, at least you love going to work.

Mark Cuban

#47. The best meetings get real work done. When your people learn that your meetings actually accomplish something, they will stop making excuses to be elsewhere.

Larry Constantine

#48. Why would you apologize for what you read for pleasure? Just think of the illiteracy rate. Every book read for pleasure should be celebrated. And novels that celebrate love, commitment, relationships, making relationships work, why isn't that something to be respected?

Nora Roberts

#49. 2 In chapter 3 of The Problem of Pain, Lewis writes, We are, not metaphorically but in very truth, a Divine work of art, something that God is making, and therefore something with which He will not be satisfied until it has a certain character.

William Shakespeare

#50. Don't confuse the process with the goal. Working on our processes to make them better, easier, and more efficient is an indispensable activity and something we should continually work on - but it is not the goal. Making the product great is the goal.

Ed Catmull

#51. A lot of people mock fandom and fan fiction, like it's lazy to base your own creativity and passion on someone else's work. But some of us need a stepping-stone to start. What's wrong with finding joy in making something, regardless of the inspiration?

Felicia Day

#52. When we engage people in conversations about great work, we're not asking them to solve a problem for us. We're not selling something, nor are we asking for some kind of handout. What we're really doing is inviting them to participate with us in the shared enjoyment of making a difference.

David Sturt

#53. I like challenge. I like to be put into a situation which I haven't done before. Something new presents itself and I see if I can somehow finagle it into making a work of art out of it.

Robert Barry

#54. Reaking up the space and using the space, using the length of the space, the height of it, whatever, the light, all of those things. It's something that you have to kind of slowly recognize in your work and develop over years of making work.

Robert Barry

#55. Every director is different. One of the great things about getting to work with so many directors in one TV series is collaborating with different artistic visions and voices. And they all have something to offer and making the story better and bringing their vision to what you see in the frame.

Beau Willimon

#56. If something can be proven to work, we should try it ... Making sure that our young folk get the best education is the only thing that matters to me, and if something can be shown to work in doing that or if something's worth trying to do that, then I'll certainly be in the market for it.

Nicola Sturgeon

#57. I like to work in the real world, so I do a lot of searching or just simple looking. But I'm not above tweaking reality and making something up. I don't think there are any rules in art. It's not so much what you see as it is the significance you, the artist, see in it.

Keith Carter

#58. To do great work, you need to feel that you're making a difference. That you're putting a meaningful dent in the universe. That you are part of something important.

Jason Fried

#59. When you are making a success of something, it's not work. It's a way of life. You enjoy yourself because you are making your contribution to the world.

Andy Granatelli

#60. Then I sit down, work at it, because now I have a convincing feeling about what that place wants to be, you see? And it's not just me. Me and my talent comes in taking that consensus and then making something wonderful out of it - a work of art.

Lawrence Halprin

#61. Difference making, by its very nature, is the art of taking something good and making it better. It's an act of fine-tuning, improving, and refining, not starting from zero.

David Sturt

#62. Social media buzz can lead to huge successes when people spread the word about something they love and want to share. But authors creating their own buzz? Making their own noise? It's hard to make a lot of noise on our own about our own work. Except, sadly, negative noise.

M.J. Rose

#63. Actors spend most of their time out of work, so I actually spend more time making furniture. The thing about furniture that's much better than acting is that it's just me. There's no director, no script - the concept is me, unless a client wants something.

Michael Schoeffling

#64. Whatever I may be, I want to be elsewhere than on paper. My art and my industry have been employed in making myself good for something; my studies, in teaching me to do, not to write. I have put all my efforts into forming my life. That is my trade and my work.

Michel De Montaigne

#65. Making my work more visual is something I am increasingly excited about. I am hopeful that it will broaden access to some of the ideas being engaged in activist and scholarly communities of which I am part.

Dean Spade

#66. We make thousands of decisions everyday in automatic mode without a mistake. Yet we don't reflect and celebrate this wonderful mode of human decision making at work rather, we put the blow torch on the one moment when it doesn't work and something goes wrong.

Rob Long

#67. [Writing something original from scratch], the initial process is way different. But once it exists and you start to actually work on making it real, then the approach is kind of the same, for me anyways.

Zack Snyder

#68. In the process of making anything, a person moves beyond personal expression to make something that stands by itself. The work acquires its own internal validity, its own integrity.

Joseph C Zinker

#69. Do not settle for easy. Do not settle for that first image. Craft it, work it, and make something more out of it. And finally, don't forget that the biggest joy in photography is making pictures of those things in your own life.

David Burnett

#70. For me, making films is about trying to work something out by myself in quite a lonely way. I find the whole thing very lonely really.

Andrea Arnold

#71. Bard eyed him like he was manure on her shoes at the same time she did things, like sharpen a wooden stake, something she knew didn't work on him, but that was not her point, even if she was making one.

Kristen Ashley

#72. What attracted me to it, beyond it being really intelligent, was that it was sadly something that would be unique on television. Anchoring this political show is this vital, dynamic, complex, thriving marriage. These people are passionately and fiercely committed to making it work out.

Tim Daly

#73. Talk is cheap and easy; making dreams real takes hard, humble work. Dreams in the Midwest are acceptable, just keep them to yourself. Maybe tell your family, but don't just talk - do something about it.

Peter Jenkins

#74. Work, it seems, was never meant to be something we do just to make a living. It was meant to be a means of making a difference - in our own lives and in the lives of others.

Jeff Goins

#75. Of course, on a job, you have a shared common interest in the fact that you're there making a movie or making a TV show, and that creates unification within a group. There has to be something more than just the work for that to continue on, for that friendship to continue on.

Jamie Campbell Bower

#76. Whenever I work on the computer, I have folders and you know how you always give everything working titles, if you have a riff or a motif or a chord progression or a lyric written on a page, it's just a line or a word or something so I always give everything a working title when I'm making a folder.

Page Hamilton

#77. I had something like a revelation: why did we keep making new art, and so much of it so bad, when we were surrounded by work that needed only the proper context to shine?

Brendan Mathews

#78. It seems to me that the best work I've done - and maybe this is something other people can identify with - was because it was an end in itself. It was something other than making ends meet, it was an escape from all that.

John Maus

#79. If I look at my work from the beginning it is more the idea of trying to establish a kind of material that one can work with for the future, rather than making nostalgic images to record something that will later become lost.

Thomas Struth