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.

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 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.

The capacity to creatively improvise is an important factor that differentiates successful companies - or teams - from those that are not successful.

If we forget our story we were doomed to repeat it

the three major F's of life: FORGIVE, FORGET and move FORWARD

Americans must place greater emphasis on the more subtle dimensions of national power, such as innovation, education, the balance of force and diplomacy, and the quality of political leadership.

How do you think it would feel to be obliged to ask for a seat-belt extender on an airplane? For the unfashionably bulgy, life is a series of small humiliations.

If you have attacked me, your children will pay for it.

Our children are for life our friends are here for the moment.

Never apologize for your success because you worked hard for it.

The Negro is an exotic of the most gorgeous and superb countries of the world, and he has deep in his heart a passion for all that is splendid, rich and fanciful.

Like most dancers, I love lip stains! We hate gloss because hair gets stuck in it.

I have to face questions like, "Do I simply write the best text I possibly can? Do I specifically engage with contemporary issues? 'Do I consciously try to write something that is timeless?"