Optionality Quotes

Failure is always an option.

I'm not locked into playing one guy.

This work thing really has a specific purpose for me, which is to be an independent human being who doesn't rely on a guy or a family to be able to support myself. It's not about showing somebody that I'm successful. It's about having a wider breadth of option.

Indecision is the key to flexibility.

I did some feature work, then tried TV. I was always very aware that the only power that you have is the power of options. If the film industry dries up, then you focus on the TV or the books. For me, it was always about what story do I want to tell next?

I want to keep different options for different futures open all the time.

I wear the uniform I wear to provide options when asked.

I used to get so worried that if a scene didn't go a certain way, then it was horrible. But then I realized that it was better to give the director options in the editing room than just being locked into how it's supposed to be.

Many people keep deploring the low level of formal education in the United states (as defined by, say, math grades). Yet these fail to realize that the new comes from here and gets imitated elsewhere. And it is not thanks to universities, which obviously claim a lot more credit than their accomplishments warrant. Like Britain in the Industrial Revolution, America's asset is, simply, risk taking and the use of optionality, this remarkable ability to engage in rational forms fo trial and error, with no comparative shame in failing again, starting again, and repeating failure.