“When it comes to creative inspiration, job titles and hierarchy are meaningless.” — Ed Catmull Creative Copy Share Image
“Driving the train doesn't set its course. The real job is laying the track.” — Ed Catmull Fitness Copy Share Image
“Better to have train wrecks with miniature trains than with real ones.” — Ed Catmull Fitness Copy Share Image
“People want decisiveness, but they also want honesty about when you’ve effed up,” — Ed Catmull Decisiveness Copy Share Image
“What makes Pixar special is that we acknowledge we will always have problems, many of them hidden from our view; that we… — Ed Catmull Disney Copy Share Image
“The key is to view conflict as essential, because that’s how we know the best ideas will be tested and survive. You… — Ed Catmull Conflict Copy Share Image
“The bottom line was that while everyone was rowing the boat, to use Andrew’s analogy, there was no forward movement.” — Ed Catmull Bottom line Copy Share Image
“Negative feedback may be fun, but it is far less brave than endorsing something unproven and providing room for it to grow.” — Ed Catmull Copy Share Image
“But as always, my focus was on the challenges ahead and on staying true to our goal of recognizing problems early and… — Ed Catmull Challenges Copy Share Image
“We had done the impossible. We had done the thing that everyone told us we couldn't do. And we had done it… — Ed Catmull Copy Share Image
“good leadership can help creative people stay on the path to excellence no matter what business they’re in.” — Ed Catmull Business Copy Share Image
“societal conditioning discourages telling the truth to those perceived to be in higher positions.” — Ed Catmull Telling the truth Copy Share Image
“It’s folly to think you can avoid change, no matter how much you might want to. But also, to my mind, you… — Ed Catmull Change Copy Share Image
“Katherine Sarafian, a producer who’s been at Pixar since Toy Story, tells me she prefers to envision triggering the process over trusting… — Ed Catmull Disney Copy Share Image
“This principle eludes most people, but it is critical: You are not your idea, and if you identify too closely with your… — Ed Catmull Copy Share Image
“A better measure of our success is to look at the people on our team and see how they are working together.… — Ed Catmull Copy Share Image
“People who would feel obligated to be honest somehow feel freer when asked for their candor; they have a choice about whether… — Ed Catmull Honesty Copy Share Image
“ARPA’s mandate—to support smart people in a variety of areas—was carried out based on the unwavering presumption that researchers would try to… — Ed Catmull Right thing Copy Share Image
“While the allure of safety and predictability is strong, achieving true balance means engaging in activities whose outcomes and payoffs are not… — Ed Catmull Balance Copy Share Image
“Instead of talking about whether it’s easier to lower a price than raise it, we should have been addressing more substantive issues… — Ed Catmull Customer Copy Share Image
“Once this became clear to me, I began telling people that the phrase was meaningless. I told our staff that it had… — Ed Catmull Copy Share Image
“There’s something else that bears repeating here: Unleashing creativity requires that we loosen the controls, accept risk, trust our colleagues, work to… — Ed Catmull Creativity Copy Share Image
“Consolidate What’s Been Learned While it is true that you learn the most in the midst of a project, the lessons are… — Ed Catmull Learning Copy Share Image
“Don’t Let Resentments Fester Many things that go wrong are caused by misunderstandings or screw-ups. These lead to resentments that, if left… — Ed Catmull Anger Copy Share Image
“If our mental models are mere approximations of reality, then, the conclusions we draw cannot help but be prone to error. A… — Ed Catmull Psychology Copy Share Image
“I’ve talked about my belief that balance is a dynamic activity—by which I mean, one that never ends. I’ve spelled out my… — Ed Catmull Balance Copy Share Image
“When I advocate for protecting the new, then, I am using the word somewhat differently. I am saying that when someone hatches… — Ed Catmull Original idea Copy Share Image
“The good stuff was hiding the bad stuff. I realized that this was something I needed to look out for: When downsides… — Ed Catmull Disney Copy Share Image
“Here’s what we all know, deep down, even though we might wish it weren’t true: Change is going to happen, whether we… — Ed Catmull Beauty of life Copy Share Image
“Once, I was having lunch with the president of another movie studio, who told me that his biggest problem was not finding… — Ed Catmull Good ideas Copy Share Image
“The definition of superb animation is that each character on the screen makes you believe it is a thinking being. Whether it’s… — Ed Catmull Copy Share Image
“Yet randomness remains stubbornly difficult to understand. The problem is that our brains aren’t wired to think about it. Instead, we are… — Ed Catmull Chance Copy Share Image
“The problem is, the phrase is dead wrong. Hindsight is not 20–20. Not even close. Our view of the past, in fact,… — Ed Catmull Hindsight Copy Share Image
“Pete has a few methods he uses to help manage people through the fears brought on by pre-production chaos. “Sometimes in meetings,… — Ed Catmull Fear Copy Share Image
“Athletes and musicians often refer to being in “the zone”—that mystical place where their inner critic is silenced and they completely inhabit… — Ed Catmull Coping mechanisms Copy Share Image
“To be honest, I was uneasy about Steve. He had a forceful personality, whereas I do not, and I felt threatened by… — Ed Catmull Copy Share Image
