Your mind is for having ideas, not for holding them.

Pretend your brain is a white board. Is it covered with to-do lists and “DO NOT ERASE”? Is there space for drawing and combining ideas?

If we don’t appropriately manage the ‘open loops’ in our life, our attention will get pulled.

Overwhelm comes from not clarifying what your intended outcome is, not deciding what the very next action is, and not reminding yourself of your intended outcome and action.

You need to transform all the ‘stuff’ you attract and accumulate into a clear inventory of meaningful actions, projects, and usable information.

Getting things done requires defining what “done” means and what “doing” looks like.

Mastering your workflow involves capturing what has your attention, clarifying what it means, putting it where it belongs, reviewing it frequently and engaging with it.

If an action will take less than two minutes, it should be done at the moment it is defined.

Anxiety and guilt don’t come from having too much to do; it comes from breaking agreements with yourself.

The Creator has not thought proper to mark those in the forehead who are of stuff to make good generals. We are first, therefore, to seek them blindfold, and then let them learn the trade at the expense of great losses.

I'd say it's even harder to cater to Hispanics than to the lesbian or gay community. We're so culturally separated: Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Mexicans, Venezuelans. We're all so different.

When your flaws are stitched together with good intentions your flaws make you beautiful.

It gives a fellow an awful shiver to hear the first shovelful of dirt and gravel rattle down upon the coffin; but after it is covered, it falls gently and makes no sound. The feeling of rest is perfect. There's no more nagging, no more pain!

People ask me where I live most of the time, and it's kind of complicated for me to answer, because I'm not really sure. It's somewhere in between London, Rome, Paris, and Rio.

During meditation your metabolism and your breath rate go down to a level of rest, twice that of deep sleep.

I gravitated to Judy Blume early on. 'Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing' was my favorite, with a realistic and relatable protagonist in Peter Hatcher. When I reached the fourth grade, I made the leap to science fiction and never looked back.

I wasn't put on this earth to look good.

I hate the word lesbian; it tells you nothing; its only purpose is to inflame.

I went further on less talent than anyone, but I was a damned good entertainer.

I was never a good journalist, because I would make things up. A lot of people frowned on that, which is why I ended up in fiction.

There is an awful lot of pressure on me.

Cuts of clothes and shapes of clothes are really important.

It's so jarring to go from Baghdad to Cambridge, to go from a place where people are fighting and striving and dying to a place where the biggest concern is what kind of cheese to put in your sandwich.

You don't have that much choice in your life, which is one of the big lessons I've learned. I was going to be a designer whether I wanted to be a designer or not.

Sincere composers believe in God.

The highest tribute to the dead is not grief but gratitude.

Age is no guarantee of maturity.

But... watching Steven Barnes taught me to treat my life like an art form.

Fortunately, dance has been what's interested me all my life. So whether I am faced with incapacities or not, it still absorbs me.

Government health care changes the relationship between the citizen and the state, and, in fact, I think it's an assault on citizenship.

Good looks are not something you earn. But as you get older, how you look is a reflection of the life you've led.

I don't deserve any credit for turning the other cheek as my tongue is always in it.

We must understand that the British public's relationship with Europe is - and always has been, the sporting arena aside - about the benefits we can achieve in jobs, security, and quality of life from membership and how these benefits outweigh any disadvantages.