Steven Johnson Quotes

It's easier to be creative if you've got other people to play with.

I am always looking for ideas, whether it is in art on the street or in my world travels. It comes to me randomly and unexpectedly.

I think making a movie or a record, the best things happen by accident - and those end up being the magic. Every time I've followed my gut it's been better than when I've tried to do what I was supposed to do.

As a designer looking to the future, you don't want to get lost in the archives.

I can understand when people copy people of the past and make the future their own.

From the moment you say 'action,' this is the fun part - things should happen that surprise you, excite you, scare you, turn you on, make you laugh. If things aren't surprising you, when you say 'cut,' whisper things to the actors that will make them do things that do surprise you.

My goal is to get people thinking and trying to wrap their heads around the amazing things that have been achieved and to dream about what will be achieved.

Because we imagine, we can have invention and technology. It's actually play, not necessity, that is the mother of invention.

I believe in tradition and innovation, authenticity and passion.

When you work with David Lynch, you never know where he's going next and that's exciting. He's like a magician pulling out new tricks.

Creativity has always depended on openness and flexibility, so let us hope for more of both in the future.

Successful people are the ones who think up things for the rest of the world to keep busy at.

Coincidence is important, the convergence of different ideas.

Imagination is the only key to the future. Without it none exists - with it all things are possible.

The scientist and engineers who are building the future need the poets to make sense of it.

The future isn't just a place you'll go. It's a place you will invent.

My insights come in periods of working. There are wonderful moments of surprise, but I'm superstitious enough not to want to talk about them.

If you want creative workers, give them enough time to play.

An artist has to look at the future, to see what we can do better.

An interest in ideas is a sign of human life. People are fascinated by what the future is going to be - and the future is going to be an accumulation of ideas.

Often times, I'm surprised by what I'm writing or what I'm playing, and then that inspires me to keep going with it, so it ends up being a very adventurous process.

Lionel Richie, love song, OK, thank you very much, good-bye. And all of a sudden I realized that, in my career, what has made my career has always been the surprises.

I started to think about what drives innovation and what its social significance might be. The next step was to think innovators are taking a leap into the unknown. That led me to the thought that it is also a source of fun and employee engagement.

Despite a few really bad days we had quite a lot of fun making Low, especially when all the radical ideas were making sense and things were starting to click.

It took the madmen of yesterday for us to be able to act with extreme clarity today. I want to be one of those madmen. We must dare to invent the future.