Really, I've been working forever, just doing music, and then all of a sudden, out of the blue, everybody is just on it.
I never thought I will ever get back into films when I took that break. 'English Vinglish' just happened.
I had the perfect accident for the perfect idea. I was rendered immobile where the only thing I could do is mess with my computer.
I probably hold the distinction of being one movie star who, by all laws of logic, should never have made it. At each stage of my career, I lacked the experience.
There was never any career plan. When 'Red Dwarf' started I thought we were doing a curious little sitcom on BBC2, I didn't think I was becoming an actor. I didn't see that 21 years later I'd still be talking about it, let alone filming a new one. For me everything's always been an accident.
The discovery which has been pointed to by theory is always one of profound interest and importance, but it is usually the close and crown of a long and fruitful period, whereas the discovery which comes as a puzzle and surprise usually marks a fresh epoch and opens a new chapter in science.
I was thrown in the deep end at 18 when I got cast in a movie that I didn't audition for. The director just sort of found me and put me in a film, so the decision was really made for me.
You can not plan to make a discovery. You do not plan innovation.
You don't need everyone to help you. You just need one touch of favor, and you will accomplish in a split second what could have taken your whole lifetime.
All serious innovation is only rendered possible by some accident enabling unpopular persons to survive.
My film career was never planned.
It's just coincidental that the acting took off first over everything else.
I guess that my life has been a series of flukes in the record business. The first thing I ever did was the biggest record that I'll ever have.
I was never supposed to get a record deal - that's one in a million.
You never know what's going to happen sometimes, or what you think's going to happen never happens, or when you least expect it, the Santana record comes along and just blows up.
No one was more surprised that that first Boston record took off than the record company itself.
In science novelty emerges only with difficulty, manifested by resistance, against a background provided by expectation.
