I think it’s a story that many Asian Americans will tell, which is that their families don’t really understand that a creative job or life is something you can even pursue. […] As a reaction to that, I actually shut myself off from the Chinese community and my family for a long time. I rejected it, because I didn’t feel like they accepted me for who I was—a creative person. On top of that, Americans didn’t really accept me as part of their society and culture because I was Asian.
— Shawna X in an interview with The Great Discontent
Now-a-days you hear people not going to college and starting businesses and it’s just kind of this sexy, understood concept. Be smart, work 24/7 on your start-up. It wasn’t like that when I was getting started; college was something that was pushed onto many kids in my particular generation. I didn’t have the money for college and it seemed better to take a year off and figure some things out. It was a big decision to not attend college, it was a decision out of necessity.
— Chuck Anderson in an interview with Chicago Creatives
Yes. I shared this exact experience and feeling.
[On the internet anonymous:]
I got my first, ‘I hope you die’ after episode three. I wrote back to the guy, ‘I assure you, sir, I have no plans of doing otherwise.’
— Nic Pizzolatto in the audio commentary for True Detective, Season 1, Episode 4
Credibility lasts about two cycles of bad material, and then you’ll probably never get it back. If you let people down, that’s really hard to come back from— harder than climbing from nothing to something, even.
— Louis C.K. in an interview with Pitchfork
What if we went through life assuming that everyone actually was an artist? That everyone had an offering to give? […] What if we could empower everyone to operate out of that place, instead of out of job titles or money or security, even? Imagine a world where everyone gives their truest, most authentic gifts.
— Elle Luna in an interview with The Great Discontent
I would never have a five-year plan. If I’d stuck to my original five-year plan when I was 18, I would have missed every great thing that ever happened to me.
— Marissa Mayer in an interview with Bloomberg Businessweek
If it hasn’t [already] been done, and if it’s of value, there’s really good reasons it’s not being done. And so when you’re confronted with those reasons, you’ve got two choices: You can say, “Oh, that’s a very good reason. I’m sorry for bothering you.” Or you can say, “I don’t believe that. I’m going to find out more.”
— Jonathan Ive in an interview with Charlie Rose
Most days end feeling like you didn’t accomplish anything. And you’re not going to accomplish anything tomorrow. And you’re in big trouble cause you’re really stuck. That’s what most days are like for me. But what’s really happening is that during those frustrating days the thinking is going on, even if it doesn’t much feel like it.
— Aaron Sorkin on his writing process in a video interview with DP/30
Previously: Sorkin’s 88th best
Of the biggest hits of the last 15 years, every one of them looks bad on paper in some way.
— Matthew Weiner, creator of Mad Men, in an interview with Advertising Age