Instead of command and control, managing the creative process is about facilitating and permitting.

Creativity is the crucial variable in the process of turning knowledge into value

Creativity, my students learn, is as natural a function of the mind as breathing or digestion are natural functions of the body.

You are able to create an environment so that the creative process can take place and that you can get people to perform at their highest levels.

Improvisation in the jazz sense - like the business sense - is not formless. It is built on a skill set. Jazz, for example, involves selecting a tune.

The challenge is to manage creative people so that the output is fruitful. The challenge is not to have an open environment and simply let them do whatever they want.

The mark of the developed intellect is that it could accommodate two contradictory ideas at the same time.

A pioneering and invaluable work about what it really takes to build innovation capability in society.

You are able to monitor and police your standards of quality once you have defined them.

If you are at Coca-Cola, the creative challenge is one of maintaining - rather than creating - a tremendous level of consumption for your products.

Tunes have notes and tempos and rules. If the tune is "All the Things You Are," you have to adhere to its structure and to the tradition behind that structure.

If I'm wrong, correct me. If I'm right, recommend me.

I was just trying to open the door... but the walls fall down

The line between ego and healthy self-esteem is very delicate. We should know when we cross this line, switch side, and become egotistical.

Always carry with you a pen and a notebook or a journal to write the thoughts that flashes in a moments.

I like smoking! I mean, God, I quit everything else, can't I smoke?

I was embarrassed that I even wanted to become an actress because coming from L.A., with two older sisters in the business and a mom who had been a ballet dancer, it was such a cliche.

I have lifted the veil. I have created life, wrested the secret of life from life. Now do you understand? From the lives of those who have gone before, I have created life.

If you're a white kid growing up and you see a Black player and he's got the name of your college or your town across his chest, that means something.

I have found it to be the most serious objection to coarse labors long continued, that they compelled me to eat and drink coarsely also.

I think that one thing that people are missing is that we are never going to be able to fix this country's [American] economy in the long run until we fix our public education system.