Industry Insights Quotes

I knew about the music. I got that part but I wanted to know the business, I wanted to know about royalties, how people got paid, producers and stuff like that so I read all those books like twice.

I think it's my job as a young actor to watch adult actors and take tips on the way they work.

Use your development time to brief analysts and industry press. Use these influencers as your eyes and ears to let you know what else is being developed by competitors so that you can be the first to market, and don't make the mistake of launching an also-ran product.

Modeling for a year taught me a lot. I got very involved in the fashion industry and met a bunch of people who I admired.

Over the course of my career, I've had the great fortune of working with some incredible filmmakers who have protected me and inspired me and taught me what an honor it is to work in film.

It always cracks me up when program directors or music directors or companies will say, 'Well, we did research, and we interviewed 25 people in our focus group, and this is what they said.' And I'm like, 'I've talked to 25 people in two hours! I talk to 50, 60, 70 people a night! Five or six days a week!'

I've learned that everything is a slow process in the TV and movie industry.

I'd love to hear what confident, intelligent women in the industry have to say: Rachel McAdams, Carey Mulligan, Angelina Jolie, Kristen Wiig and Tina Fey. I would stand in line all day for that panel.

Somebody's always getting me to come lecture to their writing class, and I don't talk about writing at all, I talk about the business of making a living at this racket.

I sometimes work with a communications and media training firm called KNP Communications. It's nice to bring the research to the practitioners; I learn a lot watching how they put it into practice, and I know they like to be on top of what's happening on the research front.

I've learned a lot of tricks from working with a lot of great producers over the years, and I think I should write a book about it!

Working with directors like Gurinder Chadha was a learning experience for me.

When I first started out in the entertainment business, I made a list of people I thought it would be good to meet. Not people who could give me a job or a deal, but people who could shake me up, teach me something, challenge my ideas about myself and the world.

I invited a group of students to my studio to expose them to both the creative and business sides of the fashion industry. It was fun because the group was so bright and full of curiosity. They asked really challenging questions about all aspects of the business and absorbed so much information so quickly.

I knew I wanted to be an actor, and my mother said, 'Call Aaron Sorkin.' It seemed dubious that I'd make it as an actor by calling Jews I knew, but it worked.

I have a great agency! It's definitely team work with my fashion career. The trick is to surround yourself with the best people, those whose opinions you really trust and value.

If you really want to understand Hollywood, you have to live in it.

The real trouble with film school is that the people teaching are so far out of the industry that they don't give the students an idea of what's happening.

My mom was a model, so she's been really good about giving me tips on how to navigate behind the scenes - like the importance of being nice to everyone on set and remembering people's names, to how to be a positive part of the photo shoot and stuff like that.

I have met with hundreds of young fashion designers, hundreds of fashion startups, hundreds of CEOs and business leaders. All I do is get to ask questions of professionals in the industry. I learn from every conversation. It is the best education I could have.

'Sabotage' was an opportunity. That was journeyman work, but the irony is I learned more off that movie on what filmmaking is and isn't than everything else combined. A lot of lessons, and it will impact me for the rest of my career.

It's always the script first choosing roles. [Then] whoever else is attached. I never like to be the first person attached, because I don't really trust what's going on, unless there's a really good director.

I think to some degree one of the strengths of the high tech industry is that people are actually willing to tell you things. When I went to Novell, I didn't know how to be a CEO, so I went in and I called all sorts of CEOs I knew. I called in a favor. I wanted to come by and listen to them tell me what it's like to be a CEO.

Once a month, go to lunch with someone who knows more about your business than you do.

I've become friends with Michael Mann and Oliver Stone; I've seen those guys work and that was great to see.