William McDonough Quotes

We wanted to do something really, really different, something next level, and use new technology and things.

We need these figures who don't exactly go against the grain but create a new grain.

The job isn't to catch up to the status quo; the job is to invent the status quo.

My show was revolutionary, ground-breaking. When I came on the scene, people were not doing a thing.

I believe you have to be willing to be misunderstood if you're going to innovate.

Artists rarely do the same thing over and over again. Art is about the new, doing things in a new way.

A person with a new idea is a crank until the idea succeeds.

The man with a new idea is a crank until his idea succeeds.

You always have to find some new ways. Old ways are too known.

Screwing things up is a virtue. Being correct is never the point. I have an almost fanatically correct assistant, and by the time she re-spells my words and corrects my punctuation, I can't read what I wrote. Being right can stop all the momentum of a very interesting idea.

We do worry that we might be making something we've made before. It's important that we make something we've never made before.

Creativity is our North Star. This way of working and this speed, this new opening and innovation, putting everything in discussion must remain at the base of what we do.

If you don't take a risk then what's the point. We can't keep making films in the same space.

Our industry does not respect tradition - it only respects innovation.

Innovation doesn't care about anyone.

I always want to do something groundbreaking, something different. I think that's what it's always about. If you have the means to do it, why not?

Mindless habitual behavior is the enemy of innovation.

I have an almost complete disregard of precedent, and a faith in the possibility of something better. It irritates me to be told how things have always been done. I defy the tyranny of precedent. I go for anything new that might improve the past.

I'd rather experiment than follow the same formula. I'm a curious person. It's gotten me into trouble, but I say, 'Why not? Let's try it.'

Innovation, being avant garde, is always polemic.

Pure innovation is more gross than error.

The visionary starts with a clean sheet of paper, and re-imagines the world.

You know that I'm always a proponent of doing things differently.

In order to innovate, you have to experiment.

I'm always glad to see somebody rethink something rather than reproduce something I did.