Bill Laswell Quotes

When you see things upside down, the ego can be extraordinarily funny; it's absurd. But it's tragic at the same time.

By nature, I'm a person who always says that whatever I've done, I could've done better. But I don't dwell on it because I'm waiting for the next time something happens and try to believe that my past experience will have helped to educate me in terms of how I deal with future ones.

Learn from the past, set vivid, detailed goals for the future, and live in the only moment of time over which you have any control: now.

I'm honest about expressing my opinions. At the same time, I'm diplomatic in how I do critique things if I have a negative response.

You can't look forward and backward at the same time.

Because YouTube is focused on a lot of different types of content at the same time, it has many opportunities, and the hardest thing is to figure out which ones you shouldn't do, and focus on the ones you should.

I always want to give my best and do the best I can. I know when I have sung my best and when I haven't. There can be stresses and hassles with time travel and press attention. I just have to adapt and find a way of dealing with it.

In my situation, every time I write a sentence, I'm thinking not only of the people I ended up in college with but my siblings, my family, my school friends, the people from my neighborhood. I've come to realize that this is an advantage, really: it keeps you on your toes.

Of course I live in my time, and I'm really curious. But, at the same time, I don't think it has a direct impact on my work.

I find myself thinking more about the past as I get older... maybe because there's just more of it to think about. At the same time, I'm less haunted by it than I was as a younger person. I guess that's probably the ideal: to reach a point where you have access to all of your memories, but you don't feel victimized by them.

Humor is such a wonderful thing, helping you realize what a fool you are but how beautiful that is at the same time.

There's something to be said about being able to be retrospective about a certain age as opposed to just in it.

Personally, I like to put things in perspective.

Yes, we have to look at our opponents and study our opponents. But you have to look at you first and know you can do it.

The most important thing is to simultaneously deal with reality - really the way it is, not the way you wished it could be or you hoped it could be - but also have a vision about where you want to go.

Ever since I was a teenager, I was always kind of, like, checking myself. You know, like, "Come on man, don't get your head all swollen. Life and time itself will give you perspective on what you're doing." So, that's actually what's always been a reminder in my own head.

The ability to manage well doesn't make much difference if you're not even in the right jungle.

A man is ever apt to contemplate himself out of all proportion to his surroundings.

The only thing that is different from one time to another is what is seen and what is seen depends upon how everybody is doing everything.

From a productivity perspective, prioritization is key. And it's very easy to focus on clearing the decks of minutia, especially when one's very busy. It's almost easy to want to sit down at your desk when you have a free five minutes and try to clear out some of the incoming emails rather than strip things strategically and foundationally and ask about what the most important objectives for you and the company are.

Be clear about what you want to accomplish, and whether the circumstances surrounding you are actively helping you toward the goal.

I was in my early thirties writing about my early twenties, so there was this way of seeing my younger self from enough of a distance to have perspective but also not to feel that I had to protect myself. My dreams for myself then would have undersold myself in a way.

Is today the day? Am I ready? Am I doing all I need to do? Am I being the person I want to be?

Today is only one day in all the days that will ever be.

The past is the place we view the present from as much as the other way around.