Avoiding Stagnation Quotes

It's easy to fall into the trap of feeling like you've heard everything before and that you have nothing left to learn.

Usually my ideas come from what I don't want to do, or what I find is old.

You have to keep busy. After all, no dog's ever pissed on a moving car.

There is nothing wrong with making mistakes, but one should always make new ones. Repeating mistakes is a hallmark of dim consciousness.

If one wants to be active, one must not be afraid of going wrong, one must not be afraid of making mistakes now and then. Many people think that they will become good just by doing no harm -- but that's a lie.... That way lies stagnation, mediocrity.

Go and do, don't sit and stew.

Never open your story with a character thinking, I advise my students. As a further precaution, don’t put a character in a room alone – create a friend, a bystander, a genie, for God’s sake, any sentient creature with whom your main character can converse, perhaps argue or, better yet, engage in some action. If a person is out and doing, it’s more likely that something interesting might happen to her or him. Shut up in a room with only his thoughts for company well, that way lies fictional disaster.

How do we appreciate the good without letting it be the enemy of the perfect? How do we keep a step in the right direction from becoming a stopping point? How do we get beyond shades of insipid light green?

Today must not be a souvenir of yesterday, and so the struggle is everlasting. Who am I today? What do I see today? How shall I use what I know, and how shall I avoid being victim of what I know? Life is not repetition.

perfectionism is a slow death. if everything were to turn out just like i would want it to, just like i would plan for it to, then i would never experience anything new; my life would be an endless repetition of stale successes. when i make a mistake i experience something unexpected.... when i have listened to my mistakes i have grown.

Sometimes in life, you have to make things happen. That you can change your life if you're willing to let go of the old and actively look for the new. That even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there.

I don't want to be stuck to one character. I think that's what can happen when you take on a superhero movie.

It's dangerous not to tour, because people assume you've faded away, or have no interest.

I never say never, because I don't want to be one of those guys.

I think I've been really lucky to keep my career so varied, and to be open. There's safety in repetition, but there's also a trap there.

When you are successful, there is this tendency to repeat the elements that we believe have worked in a certain film. Then it becomes formulaic, and there is no getting back.

Because advertising and marketing is an art, the solution to each new problem or challenge should begin with a blank canvas and an open mind, not with the nervous borrowings of other people's mediocrities. That's precisely what 'trends' are - a search for something 'safe' - and why a reliance on them leads to oblivion.

And always, he fought the temptation to choose a clear, safe course, warning 'That path leads ever down into stagnation.

Very interesting for an old duffer like me to try his hand at something new. If I don't do that once in a while, I might just turn into a fossil, you know!

I think generally, in life, I try to always ensure that there are periodic moments where I do venture out of my comfort zone, because that's what keeps you alive. That's what keeps you from getting stale.

It's crucial that I kind of keep up, without drifting into the backslapping land of cliche and lifetime achievement awards.

Maintaining longevity is a major part of success to me. So many people come into an industry quick, shoot to the top, then crash and burn.

I think that's all just a bit of luck that I've gotten to do such different stuff. I don't know if it's a good thing to not do something, just 'cause it's too similar to what you've done.