Steven Soderbergh Quotes

I don't like perfection - I think it's dangerous. There is nothing after perfection.

School is about learning to wait your turn, however long it takes to come, if ever. And how to submit with a show of enthusiasm to the judgment of strangers, even if they are wrong, even if your enthusiasm is phony.

And to be fair, most documentaries are half an hour too long, anyway. Let's not kid ourselves. Most movies are an hour too long. I will say that the internet has changed everything in terms of distribution and because of iTunes and other outlets like that, length is no longer something you really think about, in my opinion. It's irrelevant.

The secret of getting on the shortlist is doing your best work fearlessly for a long time before you get on the list.

I think writers can get a little melodramatic sometimes about their work, and it helps me not to do that, to just say, "Well, this is how I make a living, and I need to become a very good craftsman."

I don't think that there are any limits to how excellent we could make life seem.

In the practice of art... it is necessary to keep a watchful and jealous eye over ourselves; idleness, assuming the specious disguise of industry... may be employed to evade and shuffle off real labor - the real labor of thinking.

I'm willing to take the blame if the strip goes down the drain, and I want the credit if it succeeds. So long as it has my name on it, I want it to be mine.

If it's too much for people, if audiences don't accept it, well I guess that's just the way it is. I'm not being cavalier when it comes to my financial partners, but I think I've earned the right to do my thing my way. While I really want it to do well and it would be lovely if it's popular, movies are for a long time. I'm really proud of the piece. If it ends up not connecting with audiences, I won't be heartbroken. I'll be a little disappointed, but I won't be heartbroken.

There is one thing in the world more wicked than the desire to command, and that is the will to obey.

You want to be the best at your position. And if people think of me as one of the best ever, that's the ultimate compliment.

Resistance - that is the distinction of the slave. Let your distinction be obedience. Let your commanding itself be obeying!

It's about being the very best you can be. Nothing else matters as long as you're working and striving to be your best. Always compete. It's truly that simple. Find the way to do your best. Compete in everything you do.

To me, more importantly, I want to make films that I believe in, that I find value in that I think folks will like.

If anyone thinks my show was 'pretty good,' then I've completely failed.

Rule, after you have first learned to submit to rule.

I don't want to mess up my life. You only get one shot. I don't want to let my fans or anybody else down. So, I always think before I act. And as long as I do that, I'll be okay.

I think the reason I've survived that long is because I've taken my work so seriously. Maybe sometimes too seriously, but it's always been important for me to do my best regardless of the film. I think the biggest compliment I get is when people on the street stop me and say they've liked the choices I've made.

When I was a carpenter, I once worked with this Russian lady architect. I would tell her, ‘Look, I’m terribly sorry, but I want to change that a half inch,’ and she would say, ‘No limit for better.’ I think that is a worthy credo. You keep on going until you get it as close to being right as the time and patience of others will allow.

What I think I've learned is that you're never going to get it all right, and you can't obsess about having a fact wrong or a date wrong or something like that, as long as you tried as best you could. If you've done the kind of research that you're sure is pretty good, then you just have to have confidence in it, so that nothing is perfect in life. I think that is what the criticism has helped me to understand.

Creating things I think, especially as an actor - wanting to bring to the table things that have never been done before, but also making sure they're of high quality and not having a fear.

I just don't think it honors God to create mediocre art.

I'm surprised when the work appears beautiful, and very pleased. And I think work can be very good and very successful without being able to call it beautiful, although I'm not clear about that. The work is good when it has a certain completeness; and when it's got a certain completeness, then it's beautiful.

The price of excellence is labor, and time that of immortality.

I do tend to think that things that have incredibly long time horizons often do involve market failures.