Design Feast Series: Quotes

“It’s easy to get bogged down in designing something that’s perfectly laid out, and must contain so many bits of information because EVERYTHING I have to get into this project is so damn important. But sometimes the job you’re trying to do doesn’t really warrant the layers of complexity you’ve convinced yourself you needed of the finished product.”

Nathan Kontny, Co-Founder of Inkling and Cityposh

“I often tell young people who write… ‘It’s not easy.’ …I was extremely fortunate. It’s a very discouraging business sometimes, but the rewards are marvelous, especially emotionally.”

Norman Bridwell, Author and Cartoonist

“Don’t waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind. The race is long, and in the end, it’s only with yourself.”

Baz Luhrmann, Film Director

“It is play, not properness, that is the central artery, the core, the brain stem of creative life.”

Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Poet

“We want to make money when people ‘use’ our devices, not when they buy our devices.”

Jeff Bezos, Founder and CEO of Amazon.com

“here are zillions of ideas out there—they stream by like neutrons. What makes somebody pluck forth one thing—a thing you’re going to be spending as much as three years with? If I went down a list of all the pieces I ever had in ‘The New Yorker’, upward of ninety percent would relate to things I did when I was a kid. I’ve written about three sports—I played all of them in high school. I’ve written a great deal about the environment, about the outdoors­—that’s from thirteen years at Keewaydin, in Vermont, where I went to camp every summer, first as a camper and then as a counselor. I’d go on canoe trips, backpacking trips, out in the woods all summer, sleeping on the ground.”

John McPhee, Author

“A Settlement is above all a place for enthusiasms, a spot to which those who have a passion for the equalization of human joys and opportunities are early attracted.”

Jane Addams, Leader and Social Reformer

“An architect, to be a true exponent of [her or] his time, must possess first, last and always the sympathy, the intuition of a poet … this is the one real, vital principle that survives through all places and all times.”

Louis Sullivan, Architect

“Hope is not a feeling of certainty that everything ends well. Hope is just a feeling that life and work have a meaning.”

Václav Havel, Playwright and Politician

“I am sitting in a creaky old swivel-type wooden armchair of the sort that used to be found in newspaper offices; it has a battered foam cushion. When I use the telephone, I tilt back and feel like Pat O’Brien in ‘The Front Page’. Since the chair is on casters, I can roll around and reach the books, magazines, papers, pencils, and paperclips that surround me. Everything necessary is close to hand, as in any well-organized workplace, whether it is a writer’s room or the cockpit of a jumbo jet. Of course, the kind of organization required to write a book is not the same as is needed to fly a plane. Although some writers find comfort in a neatly organized desk, my own is covered three-deep with a jumble of a half-opened books, encyclopedias, dictionaries, magazines, sheets of paper, and newspaper clippings. Finding something in this precarious pile is like playing pick-up-sticks. As the work progresses, the pile grows taller and the open space I write shrinks further. Even so, there is comfort in this confusion; only when a chapter is finished, and my desk is once again immaculately empty, do I feel a sense of unease. Like a blank page, a neat desk can intimidate.”

Witold Rybczynski, Architect, Professor, Author

“It’s a hard thing, because, you know, I think directing is very much about problem-solving, and it’s very rational. You know, you have to wake up at this time, you have to know your shot list, you have to know what scene you’re [doing]—I mean, you have to know your stuff. It’s not something you can take lightly. Not that acting is something you can take lightly, but acting is more emotional, so it’s a different kind of job. So I feel a lot of studio heads and stuff, or people that are handling millions of dollars and putting that on the table to make movies, are very concerned with the fact that women have the reputation to be more emotional and not as rational or as organized or as meticulous—I don’t know, something like that. …

But the truth is, I am an emotional person when I need to be, but I can also completely shut down that part of me. You know, when I know I have to make a movie, I really think of the money that I’m spending, I’m really thinking of the time that I’m spending. I’m pretty rational when I start working on a set as a director. I don’t feel that creative when I’m directing, I’m just really, really, really focused on making everything work. Just like any other business, you know; I feel like I’m dealing with doing business.”

Julie Delpy, Actor and Director

“The point of teaching is the opportunity to think new things, find out new things, to have a library.”

Peter Levi, Poet and Professor of Poetry at University of Oxford

“I cannot believe that the inscrutable universe turns on an axis of suffering; surely the strange beauty of the world must somewhere rest on pure joy!”

Louise Bogan, Poet

“If you find yourself in a literary desert, rather than fuss and complain about it, create an oasis.”

Cathy Day, Author

“It’s harder to imagine the past that went away than it is to imagine the future.”

William Gibson, Author

“When I look at things, I always see the space they occupy. I always want the space to reappear, to make a comeback, because it’s lost space when there's something in it. If I see a chair in a beautiful space, no matter how beautiful the chair is, it can never be as beautiful to me as the plain space.”

Andy Warhol, Artist

“I’ve always made a distinction between building, sculpture and architecture. If it’s space that physically encloses a human activity and functions at a reasonable level but has no capacity to elicit from you a desire to go further, think spiritually, worry about your fellow man, then it’s just a building. If it’s an enormously elaborate, beautiful, moving space that you can inhabit but it was designed as a symphony hall and you can’t hear the orchestra in the back, then it’s large-scale sculpture. Architecture to me is that fantastic combination of the two where it enhances and encloses human activity but it actually inspires you to do better.”

Will Miller, President of The Wallace Foundation

“This is the essence of the popular arts in America: Be a magpie, take from everywhere, but assemble the scraps and shiny things you’ve lifted in ways that not only seem inventive, but really do make new meanings. Fabrication is elemental to this process—not fakery, exactly, but the careful construction of a series of masks through which the artist can not only speak for himself, but channel and transform the vast and complicated past that bears him or her forward.

Integrity arises in the process of solidifying your relationship to those sources. For a journalist like Lehrer, there’s a code, and he clearly violated it. An artist like Dylan shows us a different way of operating: of using insight not to shore up a myth of originality, but to connect to all the tall tales and ghost stories that establish a culture’s character, to walk through a dreamscape whose atmosphere sticks to us and makes us who we are.”

Ann Powers, Critic and Correspondent at National Public Radio

“All in all, the creative act is not performed by the artist alone; the spectator brings the work into contact with the external world by deciphering and interpreting its inner qualifications and thus adds his contribution to the creative act.”

Marcel Duchamp, Artist

“Thoughtful art is not easy to do. To me, I analyze the big picture. Is the form solid? Does it have a refined maturity? Is there thought involved? What does the artist’s full body of work look like? What is his background and what is he trying to communicate? And so on.

In the end, work either communicates something to the viewer or not. That is the long and the short of it. Great work can do something without saying anything. It touches the heart and soul. You can look at an excellent Rothko in a book and dismiss it, but when you see one in person, and it doesn’t touch you, you are dead.”

Michael Cina, Artist and Designer

“Want to be more creative? Pick a problem you care about and get to work. If you don’t care about anything, your problem isn’t creativity, it’s apathy. If you start things and give up, your problem isn’t creativity, it’s dedication.”

Scott Berkun, Author and Speaker

“I’m not really sure I know what talent is. In a sense it might simply be having an instinct about what works, what doesn't, and what to do next.”

Eli Keszler, Artist

“When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. That’s my religion.”

Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States

“There’s also the saying that, in tough times, art is more important, that keeping the spirits up and the soul alive in difficult economic circumstances is terribly important.”

John Beardsley, Head of Garden and Landscape Studies at Harvard University

“Out of sounds, words, and other frail and worthless things, we can construct playthings—songs and poems full of meaning, consolation and goodness, more beautiful and enduring than the grim sport of fortune and destiny.”

Hermann Hesse, Author

“I think an art director is most helpful when they have a vision, can communicate it, and give feedback. Otherwise, they’re useless in the role.”

Barbara deWilde, Designer

“Thankfully, perseverance is a great substitute for talent.”

Steve Martin, Comedian and Musician

“You care about things that you make, and that makes it easier to care about things that other people make.”

Louis Menand, Author

“I know the feeling of ‘if I could just get a chance, I could prove myself’—but this is how it works: you prove yourself to get the chance.”

Emma Coats, Storyboard Artist at Pixar

“Story basics:

You admire a character for trying more than for their successes.

You gotta keep in mind what’s interesting to you as an audience, not what’s fun to do as a writer. They can be v. different.

Trying for theme is important, but you won’t see what the story is actually about til you’re at the end of it. Now rewrite.

Once upon a time there was ___. Every day, ___. One day ___. Because of that, ___. Because of that, ___. Until finally ___.

Simplify. Focus. Combine characters. Hop over detours. You’ll feel like you’re losing valuable stuff but it sets you free.

What is your character good at, comfortable with? Throw the polar opposite at them. Challenge them. How do they deal?

Come up with your ending before you figure out your middle. Seriously. Endings are hard, get yours working up front.

Finish your story, let go even if it’s not perfect. In an ideal world you have both, but move on. Do better next time.

When you’re stuck, make a list of what WOULDN’T happen next. Lots of times the material to get you unstuck will show up.

Pull apart the stories you like. What you like in them is a part of you; you’ve got to recognize it before you can use it.

Putting it on paper lets you start fixing it. If it stays in your head, a perfect idea, you’ll never share it with anyone.

Discount the 1st thing that comes to mind. And the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th—get the obvious out of the way. Surprise yourself.

Give your characters opinions. Passive/malleable might seem likable to you as you write, but it’s poison to the audience.

Why must you tell THIS story? What’s the belief burning within you that your story feeds off of? That’s the heart of it.

If you were your character, in this situation, how would you feel? Honesty lends credibility to unbelievable situations.

What are the stakes? Give us reason to root for the character. What happens if they don’t succeed? Stack the odds against.

No work is ever wasted. If it’s not working, let go and move on—it’ll come back around to be useful later.

You have to know yourself: the difference between doing your best & fussing. Story is testing, not refining.

Coincidences to get characters into trouble are great; coincidences to get them out of it are cheating.

Exercise: take the building blocks of a movie you dislike. How d’you rearrange them into what you DO like?

You gotta identify with your situation/characters, can’t just write ‘cool’. What would make YOU act that way?

What’s the essence of your story? Most economical telling of it? If you know that, you can build out from there.”

Emma Coats, Storyboard Artist at Pixar Animation Studios

“It is the lone worker who makes the first advance in a subject; the details may be worked out by a team, but the prime idea is due to enterprise, thought, and perception of an individual.”

Alexander Fleming, Biologist and Pharmacologist

“Your intuition knows what to write, so get out of the way.”

Ray Bradbury, Author

“To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not rich; to listen to stars and birds, babes and sages, with open heart; to study hard, think quietly, act frankly, talk gently, await occasions, hurry never; in a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common—this is my symphony.”

William Henry Channing, Clergyperson, Author and Philosopher

“Let me not think of my work only as a stepping stone to something else. And if it is, let me become fascinated with the shape of the stone.”

Ze Frank, Online Performance Artist and Humorist

“I have a way of filming things and staging them and designing sets. There were times when I thought I should change my approach, but in fact, this is what I like to do. It’s sort of like my handwriting as a movie director. And somewhere along the way, I think I’ve made the decision: I’m going to write in my own handwriting. That’s just sort of my way.”

Wes Anderson, Film Director, Screenwriter

“Though I do not believe that a plant will spring up where no seed has been, I have great faith in a seed. Convince me that you have a seed there, and I am prepared to expect wonders.”

Henry David Thoreau, Philosopher and Naturalist

“One problem with digital is that you can zoom in and in forever: but with a pen, the width of the line gives a natural end.”

Tom Gauld, Illustrator, Cartoonist, Author

“It’s not just spammers and scammers who look for shortcuts. Even if you’re in this for the long haul, the temptation is there to try this little trick, or that little tactic. You see others around you rising faster or getting richer and you want to be at your destination, now.

Resist.

Remember that this isn’t about today, or this month, or this year. Do this right and you could be laying the foundations of the rest of your working life.”

Thom Chambers, Founder and Publisher at Mountain & Pacific

“I like seeing the hand involved in all work. [What] you’re hearing out of the radio and pop music now is this big kind of congealed blob of ear candy. It works for a minute, but there’s no vulnerability there. There’s no evidence of soul there. I want to hear the performance and the people behind the performance.”

JD McPherson, Singer and Songwriter

“There is no creation without tradition; the ‘new’ is an inflection on a preceding form; novelty is always a variation on the past.”

Carlos Fuentes, Author

“I have seen my share of pretentious, affected, and indeed, nasty designers, who see themselves as somehow superior to the younger, unseasoned types of people who occasionally approach them for advice: in fact, I've been meeting people like this most of my adult life. Some of them were my teachers, others my employers, and all I can say as I approach that abyss of transcendent self-awareness (as far as I can tell, the only benefit of my incipient slide into middle age) is that it was ‘absolutely’ not necessary for any of these people to treat me as a slave, or a half-wit, or a peon in their exalted, myopic universe. And yet, they did.

So how to explain people like Massimo Vignelli, who didn't know me, who had no reason to write back to me, but did? Or Bradbury Thompson, who annually treated his entire class of thirty-plus graduate students to lunch? Or, for that matter, Steve Heller, who found time from publishing a new book, say, every fifteen minutes or so, to give me my first break as a writer? …

I have heard that Milton Glaser will never accept a social invitation if it means canceling a class, because his students come first. This makes him a rock star in my book, and makes me wonder if we should start teaching ethics in design school. If charity begins at home, how can we proclaim new and progressive agendas of social change without examining ourselves, our students, our profession?”

Jessica Helfand, Partner, with William Drenttel, of Winterhouse

“The products that take design seriously and incorporate it from the start are going to be the ones that connect with people in a way that really makes an impact in the world. As more and more products are built in this manner, people are going to notice the pattern. Designers will be seen as an essential ingredient in any startup team. The perception of design as decoration will start to show cracks.”

Cameron Koczon, Founder of Fictive Kin

“When the print sings.”

Bryan Nash Gill, Artist

“One thing that a year with Code for America has taught me is that innovation does not belong to any one person. And more to that end, to even begin to create something new, you need to move mountains, and to do that you need villages—no armies—of people pulling in the same direction. You don’t do it alone.”

Anna Bloom, Fellow, Code for America

“I’m hungry now for having the most time I can have for my creativity and less time for managing fame and success.”

Helmut Lang, Fashion Designer turned Visual Artist

“Don’t think of your portfolio as a collection of deliverables. Think of it as a collection of stories about how you do your best work.”

Jared M. Spool, CEO and Founding Principal of User Interface Engineering

“The most successful enterprise software focuses on the end user first and the reporting second. Meaningful reporting comes from quality input.”

Craig Villamor, Director of Mobile User Experience at Salesforce.com

“We go through the trouble of translating works because we want to learn about the culture, but it turns out that culture is the hardest thing to translate.”

J. Philip Gabriel, Translator of Author Haruki Murakami’s Works

“Most companies (including web startups) are looking ‘wow’ with their products, when in reality what they should be looking for is an ‘of course’ reaction from their users.’”

Christian Lindholm, Chief Innovation Officer at Fjord

“Yet I deeply worry about our wider inability to understand that stories and journalism are intricately related—and that we all have a responsibility to ensure we do not fabricate in the name of truth-telling, even with the best of intentions, or, seriously, without clarity of context. Journalism, as I know first hand, is incredibly hard work, made easier by the temptation to cut corners, tell neater stories or tie up awkward loose ends. Yet the best in the business describe the complexity of life and society without resorting to any of these tactics. The best storytellers in the business do the same. … Let’s treat our world’s citizens as adults and engage them in a thoughtful, considered way that does not resort to ‘truthiness’ or lies.”

Helen Walters, Writer and Researcher at Doblin