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.

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.

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

There are moments in our lives when we summon the courage to make choices that go against reason, against common sense and the wise counsel of people we trust.

Have you ever gotten to a point where you looked at your own life, thought "Fu** this, " and reached for the economy-sized Valium? Ah, suicide. So dark and seductive.

For a woman, love is the highest dream, and if a man promises to build a ladder tall enough to reach it, she believes him, hikes up her skirt, and follows him to the stars.

I can always go back to construction. That's great money, but the problem is you can cut off your hand.

Instruments fascinate me because they're completely awkward. When I picked up a guitar for the first time I was like, "What is this?" because it's so foreign and unknown.

They say that 'home is where the heart is.' I think it is where the house is, and the adjacent buildings.

Weirdly also listening to a lot of Aphex Twin again, I loved Syro.

Only man had dignity; only man, therefore, can be funny.

There are emotional ties to family that are connected to the sexual experience for women that are very different than men which does make it harder for women to date and not get hurt.