If you really want to do it, you do it. There are no excuses.

If you choose the wrong questions and you proceed, you still get a result, but it's not interesting.

In this case we're building a corner to stretch a fence and hang a gate. It had a real purpose in the ranch here. I needed to do this. But at the same time, it made a beautiful structure.

I like to use my hands and make things... It might seem pretty stupid or pointless but that doesn't matter... some of the most interesting work is the stuff that starts like that - out of a raw need for activity.

If you really want to do it, you do it. There are no excuses.

In art, the only one who really knows whether what you've done is honest is the artist.

But part of the enjoyment I take in it is finding the most efficient way to do it, which doesn't mean the corrections aren't made. I like to have a feeling of the whole task before I start, even if it changes.

And so I put down some of the things that he said, about keeping your tools sharpened and not letting them lie on the ground where they get hurt or get abused and dirty and can't find them. And some thoughts about how his father used to do things.

I don't like to think about being an influence. It's embarrassing.

I'll talk. You'll listen.

And I don't have any specific steps to take because I don't start the same way every time. But there is a knowing when it's enough and you can leave it alone.

But if you can find that spot - I suppose it's like running - I used to be a swimmer and swim laps, and you just have to be there with what you're doing.

Generalised anger and frustration is something that gets you in the studio, and gets you to work - though it's not necessarily evident in anything that's finished.

What I am really concerned about is what art is supposed to be - and can become.

In the studio, I don't do a lot of work that requires repetitive activity. I spend a lot of time looking and thinking and then try to find the most efficient way to get what I want, whether it's making a drawing or a sculpture, or casting plaster or whatever.

And then what makes the work interesting is if you choose the right questions.

I think humor is used a lot of the time to keep people from getting too close. Humor side-steps and shifts the meaning.

I've always been interested in what happens in the studio.

The true artist helps the world by revealing mystic truths.

If you really want to do it you do it. There are no excuses.

Excuses change nothing, but make everyone feel better.

We need to hear the excuses men make to themselves for their worthlessness.

I do not believe in excuses. I believe in hard work as the prime solvent of life's problems.

Under the leadership of this President, the state of the union is not strong. We are being pulled apart rather than pulling together. Our democracy is suffering from the choices being made, and yet we are offered the same tired excuses and unrealistic analyses.

I'm not making any excuses. I got my butt kicked in certain games.

Bad excuses are worse than none.

If you really want to do it, you do it. There are no excuses.

I am not the kind of woman who excuses her mistakes while reminding us of what used to be.

These thieves defend themselves by saying, 'I was there all the time, and the officials missed me.' Favorite excuses for missing surveillance checkpoints: jacket covered the number took off the shirt with the number hidden in a crowd.

The best job goes to the person who can get it done without passing the buck or coming back with excuses.

I had arranged a birthday party for him and my children, who are all Aquarians. Instead, we got married. I ran out of excuses. It was just us and my children.

Ignorance of the law excuses no man from practicing it.

We first fought... in the name of religion, then Communism, and now in the name of drugs and terrorism. Our excuses for global domination always change.

Ninety-nine percent of the failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses.

People want a cop-out, listen I'm a realist and I talk about motivation, talk about all the things it takes to be greater or are important to win and people want to use excuses all the time.

Whether I get adequate attention or not, people here do know the work I have been doing systematically and without compromise for over 40 years. I get tired of people making excuses for guys who don't continue the art because they can't make a living.

It is wise to direct your anger towards problems - not people; to focus your energies on answers - not excuses.

People spend too much time finding other people to blame, too much energy finding excuses for not being what they are capable of being, and not enough energy putting themselves on the line, growing out of the past, and getting on with their lives.

I had made a decision early on that we were going to do the right things and that if they worked we were going to be very successful. And if for some reason they didn't, all the claims and the protestations and the excuses wouldn't make any difference.

It happens to the best of them. You lay off singing and your throat gets out of practice. No excuses. I blew it.

The Soviet Union has indeed been our greatest menace, not so much because of what it has done, but because of the excuses it has provided us for our failures.

If the fans want me out, I'll put my hands up and leave. Like a proper man. I won't make excuses, I'll leave.

The day you take complete responsibility for yourself, the day you stop making any excuses, that's the day you start to the top.

I'm not going to say that every record I've put out was the greatest record in history, but I'd stand by even the bad ones. Don't make excuses, make hits.

And I have this little litany of things they can do. And the first one, of course, is to write - every day, no excuses. It's so easy to make excuses. Even professional writers have days when they'd rather clean the toilet than do the writing.

Continually finding excuses for taking a small glass of brandy and water.

Several excuses are always less convincing than one.

I'm not going to make any excuses. I just went out and stunk it up tonight.

I felt ashamed for what I had done. I don't have any excuses. I did what I did. I take full responsibility for myself and my actions. I wouldn't pawn this off on anybody. I'm sorry it happened. And I hurt people.