Edwin Catmull Quotes

If everyone is trying to prevent error, it screws things up.

If you give a good idea to a mediocre group, they'll screw it up. If you give a mediocre idea to a good group, they'll fix it. Or they'll throw it away and come up with something else.

You are not your idea, and if you identify too closely with your ideas, you will take offense when they are challenged.

If you aren't experiencing failure, then you are making a far worse mistake: You are being driven by the desire to avoid it.

Creativity doesn't follow titles. It just comes from where it comes from.

Art isn't about drawing; it's about learning to see. What organization doesn't need this ability?

We start from the presumption that our people are talented and want to contribute. We accept that, without meaning to, our company is stifling that talent in myriad unseen ways. Finally, we try to identify those impediments and fix them.

Success hides problems...you don't need to address problems.

For me, creativity includes problem-solving. That's the broad definition of it.

Every creative person can draft into service those around them who exhibit the right mixture of intelligence, insight, and grace.

It's pretty popular today to say that everybody should learn to fail and that failure's a good thing. Intellectually, it's an obvious thing. But in fact, it gets conflated with another meaning of failure, so when we grow up as kids, failing in school was a really bad thing.

I love solving the problems of having groups work together and removing barriers. But to actually turn around and be in the center of that is an awkward place to be.

You can give a great film idea to a mediocre team and they may screw it up, but if you give a mediocre idea to a great team, they will turn it into a great film.

I actually feel awkward being at the center of attention.