Duncan Jones Quotes

It's been exciting to be able to go forward with stuff without 10,000 people saying, It should be like this.

We need to have fewer meetings, not more—as we have to have time to put into effect some of the things we decide in these meetings.

If you really wish to be independent and make your own judgements about everything important, it is difficult to be a good team player —because a team has different criteria for making judgements about an issue.

I enjoy juggling four or five different projects in the air and finding connections and disconnections between them.

I think the best thing a team can have is different leaders.

I need to have a great deal of control and the ability to share my control with my collaborators and grant them the freedom and the quality of work I think these people deserve. If I don't have those elements, I walk away.

When you are in a big team, there's time when you can stay out.

I don't really like to work with a large team and assistants, because then I lose so much time explaining things, which I don't like.

Collaborative decision-making is very poor in crises.

My best business decision was to be independent as a musician and artist. My worst was compromising on certain aspects of a deal for the sake of other members of my group when I shouldn't have, because I was right in the end.

I'm just not somebody who can sit around doing nothing, and all of us in the Foo Fighters have our own things outside of the band. I'm not going to use the cliche that those outlets bring us back fresh and with new ideas, but what I will say is that it keeps us all feeling free - and that creative freedom is a very positive thing.

My dream was to not work for anyone. There's only so many things I was good at - and how am I not going to work for anyone? I just don't want people telling me what to do.

Launching a start-up, you need to get a lot done quickly. Every day is different. Everyone pitches in with everything. It's easy for the founding team to say, 'We're flexible. We all help out with everything!' But when it comes to making decisions - that flexibility can spell inefficiency and disaster.

First, make yourself a reputation for being a creative genius. Second, surround yourself with partners who are better than you are. Third, leave them to go get on with it.

The least productive people are usually the ones who are most in favor of holding meetings.

George was getting alot of independence for himself in those days. He was writing more, and wanted things to go his way - where, when we first started things basically went John and Paul's way. You know, 'cuz they were the writers.

I think that a president needs to have a variety of views presented. But also, there has to be a team effort, because otherwise, I think it creates a dissonance and difficulty.

I can do whatever I want. They will tell me if what I am doing is stupid or a total waste of time. I may tell them that they are wrong, and we will come to an agreement.

Nothing great can come of more than three people in a room. If you had 10 incredibly bright people, nothing would come out of it.

The key things I learned as a hospital administrator are to be organized, communicate, and be flexible.

Effective leadership is putting first things first. Effective management is discipline, carrying it out.

I've got to let the people who are in the business run the business. I can help them think through their decisions about products, about partners, about hiring. But in the end, the decisions are theirs, and so is the responsibility.

After decades spent in rewrite rooms surrounded by other shouting writers, I discovered that I work best alone. I like being in charge of my time, working out the problems according to my own rhythms and being able to nap. That's a big one, the napping on demand!

If you have a strong sense of who you are and what you're doing, then it's actually easier to work with other people, because you don't have to worry about them or yourself. You're just worrying about getting the best product, and all that other stuff is out of the way.

The big difference between the radio show and the TV work is that I don't have to work by committee on the radio show. I'm the DJ; I can play what I want and suffer or get praised by that. With a TV show, it's much more of a collaboration, and the song that I might think is perfect may get shot down and vice versa.