Walter Murch Quotes

What was worked out at Ford was the practice of moving the work from one worker to another until it became a complete unit, then arranging the flow of these units at the right time and the right place to a moving final assembly line from which came a finished product.

We have our factory, which is called a stage. We make a product, we color it, we title it and we ship it out in cans.

The man who places a part does not fasten it. The man who puts in the bold does not out on the nut. The man who puts on the nut does not tighten it. Every piece of work in the shop moves. It may move on hooks, on overhead chains …. It may travel on a moving platform or go by gravity.

My first job at General Motors was as a quality inspector on the assembly line. I was checking fits between hoods and fenders. I had a little scale and clipboard. At one point, I was probably examining 60 jobs an hour during an eight-hour shift. A job like that teaches you to value all the people who do a job like that.

In the postwar period, Americans turned away from quality as the principal goal of manufacturing and made cost the principal goal. Japanese, restructuring their companies, made exactly the opposite decision.

Now, I love a good factory tour. Drop me into a bottling plant, an automotive assembly line, or a jellybean factory, and I'm happy as a clam at high tide.

Governing a large state is like boiling a small fish.

Please do not understand me too quickly.

A garden is half made when it is well planned.

One has to tiptoe lightly and steal up to one's quarry; you don't swish the water when you are fishing.

I put the hamburger on the assembly line.

Chance never writ a legible book; chance never built a fair house; chance never drew a neat picture; it never did any of these things, nor ever will; nor can it be without absurdity supposed able to do them; which yet are works very gross and rude, very easy and feasible, as it were, in comparison to the production of a flower or a tree.

I do not see any other way of realizing our hopes about World Organization in five or six days. Even the Almighty took seven.

I think we all ought to be careful about too much generalization on this issue, even as I confess to painting with a pretty broad brush myself!

You may say organize, organize, organize; but there may be so much organization that it will interfere with the work to be done.

Dispatch is the soul of business, and nothing contributes more to dispatch than method.

It's a question of discipline,' the little prince told me later on. 'when you've finished washing and dressing each morning, you must tend your planet. you must be sure you pull up the baobabs regularly, as soon as you can tell them apart from the rosebushes, which they closely resemble when they're very young. It's very tedious work, but very easy.

Never count your chickens before you can stick a fork into them.

By playing at Chess then, we may learn: First: Foresight... Second: Circumspection... Third: Caution...And lastly, we learn by Chess the habit of not being discouraged by present bad appearances in the state of our affairs, the habit of hoping for a favorable chance, and that of persevering in the secrets of resources

It takes real planning to organize this kind of chaos.

Your mind is like a garden - unless you cultivate flowers, weeds will flourish. To keep your mind positive, substitute positive thoughts for negative thoughts.

Remember, America: organization will set you free.

Patience; this is the greatest business asset. Wait for the right time to make your moves.

Don't count your boobies until they are hatched.

I'm up to my hairline in planning. It's a lot, especially when you're a woman of detail.