Danny Elfman Quotes

As the future is never known with certainty, the evaluation of the prospective benefits requires the formation of expectations. An acceptable house, partner or job, then, is one that offers an expected stream of future benefit that has a value in excess of the option to continue to search for an even better alternative.

I have made good judgments in the past. I have made good judgments in the future.

I had the opportunity to go with some other teams. But I didn't consider those teams to be contenders, and I was right.

Life's a pitch, then you buy.

In business, staying focused requires that you turn most opportunities down.

People who don't take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year. People who do take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year.

The man who knows it can't be done counts the risk, not the reward.

There are a couple of projects that are sort of on the plate; I haven't closed any of them yet. I'm trying to figure out which one is going to be the best one for me.

[Cost-benefit analysis is used:] ... to produce lofty academic-sounding reasons for endless inaction.

I made a cold calculation that I wasn’t going to waste time on a futile struggle.

If you wait until you have all the facts, then it will be too late..

The best thing I ever did was when I was offered a million dollars to go play in South Africa and didn't take it. I was 21 years old, and part of it was like, 'Well, if they're offering me this obscene amount of money just to play one match, there must be something really wrong.'

What success has done is present me with a lot of opportunities, and I haven't necessarily learned to say 'no' as well as I should have.

Service drives a lot of my decisions.

The way deals are done, every idea is looked at 50 different ways. Now, the market continues to change all the time. And we are always looking at everything in evaluating how it fits with our strategy.

The team was supported by the fans, and the city was committed to a new building. But that wasn't good enough for Walter O'Malley. He had a better deal, and he passed up a good deal for a better one. I don't think that was right, because ownership of a ballclub is at least a semi-public trust.

It stinks to give up a good player. But if you think that way, you'll never make any trades. You have to focus on what you're getting back.

It was a hard decision to leave Norwich, and you have to take into account a lot of things - could I make the step up? Do I want to have another season of really showing what I can do?

I saw Spurs as being a very good fit for me - but we were unable to agree financial terms with them... With hindsight, though, that was not a disaster.

As a player you need to make whatever decision you think is best for your career.

I used to believe that you have to say yes to every opportunity that comes your way in order to succeed in life. Now I realize that the rarely-talked-about secret to success (and sanity) is recognizing when it makes more sense to say no.

The label does what's good for the label. Always.

Stack the cards in your favour, and in a casino, you'll get arrested and put in prison, but in business and in life, it's the right thing to do.

About the only useful thing my economics degree taught me was that, in all decisions in life, you have to do a cost-benefit analysis.

I think that the test for taking on a project is to try and list all the reasons not to do it. When you find yourself running out of reasons, and you still have to do it, it's the right thing to do.