Alan Cohen Quotes

I want to be surprised by what people do, I don't want to work with people who need to be told what to do. I want people to show me what they've got.

If it's not happening, write your own thing!

What I wanted to hear didn't exist, so it was necessary for me to go out and create it.

Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.

Think new thoughts. Grab life with both hands, take opportunities you have, & create the ones you need.

If no one's doing the creative work that you want to do, do it yourself.

Sometimes if you want to see a change for the better, you have to take things into your own hands.

I'm a great believer in not sitting around waiting for the right part to come around, but jumping in and building it for yourself.

Don't wait for someone to tell you what to do. Develop an innovative solution and work as a team to make it happen.

It's very important to stay creative and not simply to wait around for people to want you. It's the hardest thing about the business.

I definitely feel like I'm at that point where it's nice to not have to sit at home and wait to be invited to the party, but to be creating work for yourself.

Typically, my advice to young artists is not to wait for someone to allow you to do the thing. Just do the thing, and they'll catch up.

You've got to be able to think on your own; you've got to be creative. You can't be willing to take a backseat.

I got tired of asking people to do stuff and waiting on results, so I just took it into my own hands.

The only ones who can really benefit by consulting the model are those who can produce their effect without a model.

Excellence isn’t about working extra hard to do what you’re told. It’s about taking the initiative to do work you decide is worth doing.

The goal is to be on the hook, not to let someone else do the scary parts.

The best way to predict the future is to invent it.

You focus on the things that you can control, and that's what I'm doing.

I do less waiting by the phone than anyone I know in the business. I don't wait for a job. I just go on to my own work.

Hold up a mirror and ask yourself what you are capable of doing, and what you really care about. Then take the initiative - don't wait for someone else to ask you to act.

One has to take initiative in life to achieve what he or she wants.

Don't follow trends, start trends.

I tell people if I want to make a film I just go make it so you can make yours.

When we started the band, it was because we were waiting for a sound that never happened. We got tired of waiting, and we decided to just do it ourselves.