Robert Benton Quotes

Listen to Everyone. Ideas come from everywhere

I love being around people that contribute. It doesn't matter where the good idea comes from. A good idea is a good idea.

You can get really far by putting your ideas out there and letting other people build on them.

Innovation is all about people. Innovation thrives when the population is diverse, accepting and willing to cooperate.

I personally believe that a critical part to innovation is that exchange of ideas so when you say, 'Here's my idea,' someone else at the next table, who is in a different party, will go, 'Oh, these guys are trying that,' so that comes.

But, you always have to listen to everyone, because I'm not always right and other people have great ideas, too. I think that makes great moviemaking.

At a well-run company, good ideas are embraced no matter where they come from.

I've learned how to trust someone else's ideas with mine.

Because when you work with a different team, the expectations are different and then you deliver in a very different way. You look back at it and you're proud of yourself. And when the same people come in and you do the same thing, it's boring. You could re-envision it again and again but when the new chemistry of ideas comes in, something happens as a team.

The thing I noticed, have learned the most about directors, is: when they're very confident in themselves, they're open to creativity from other people. If they're scared or nervous, then they shut off and nobody's ideas [count].

The trick to having good ideas is not to sit around in glorious isolation and try to think big thoughts. The trick is to get more parts on the table.

Nobody has a monopoly on good ideas

Be open to other people's ideas. Don't get arrogant about your ideas. Shoot a lot of options so you're not stuck with just one version of something.

One of my philosophies as a director is to listen to other people's great ideas because they'll help make you better.

Senior men have no monopoly on great ideas. Nor do creative people. Some of the best ideas come from account executives, researchers and others. Encourage this, you need all the ideas you can get.

It's been really exciting to work on a collaborative, creative team where we got to bounce ideas back and forth and figure out the best one.

If you put enough smart people together in one space, good things happen.

Entrepreneurs have a natural inclination to go it alone. While this do-it-yourself spirit can help you move forward, adding an element of collaboration into the mix can make you unstoppable.

Good ideas are free - or at least they should be.

I wanted to work with people from the world, with different minds and different visions.

If you have somebody who's brilliant and highly creative with a different point of view than you have, and a very different intellectual background, great things can happen.

Magicians are typically introverted; they don't tend to work with others, but I work with software programmers, composers, designers, so it's a very diverse group and the result is always more interesting than something I could have done by myself.

No director wants to be directed, but no good director... would shy away from the good ideas of others.

And I've always said, 'If two people think the same thing about everything, one of them isn't necessary.' We need to be able to understand that if we're going to make real progress.

I love collaborating with different people.