Rick Smolan Quotes

'Profit' in my mind is as good as television gets, and if that didn't make it, all bets are off on really predicting what's going to work and what's not.

To be a bestseller is not necessarily a measure of quality, but it is a measure of communication.

I can promote until I am blue in the face, but ultimately nobody knows what makes a hit.

I think it's a very ephemeral thing, what makes a show a success.

About 30 million people see me every week - I'm a happy man.

You never know what the public is going to respond to or relate to.

Now, there is no business like show business, and there is no publicity like word of mouth. What is word of mouth, you may ask? Well, word of mouth is gold to Hollywood bigwigs, and it equates to box office bonanzas and hit TV shows.

I don't care what other critics say, I only hope to be played.

You make something, and you really have fun with it, and you try to put emotion in it, and at the end of the day, you have no idea how the tide is going to fall. You don't know if everyone's going to like it, if everyone's going to hate it, if it's going to be like you're a media darling, or all of a sudden you're a sellout. You have no idea.

As my career has gone on, I guess I've become more well known. I'm playing to fuller halls in general, which is a nice feeling. When you're doing that, you're going to have a certain number of people who are not just the hardcore classical fanatics, and this makes me very happy.

I don't know why my shoes are so popular - I am always surprised and mystified by it.

We never expected the show to be this great. We think it is successful because kids can identify.

The only time I have a good hunch the audience is going to be there is when I make the sequel to 'Jurassic Park' or I make another Indiana Jones movie. I know I've got a good shot at getting an audience on opening night. Everything else that is striking out into new territory is a crap shoot.

Every TV show is a crapshoot, really. But every once in a while, a show gets anointed as 'the show.'

The public makes a hit.

B is for bestseller.

I'm trying to communicate here. I'm a communicator, I like to communicate, and if a million people buy it then we've touched a million people, if only 10 people buy it, then we've only touched 10, and that's important, because I'm satisfied with only 10. But, I love a million.

I knew people liked me on 'American Idol,' but I didn't think they'd care to come see me sing at my own show.

Jerry and I hoped that it would be a popular bestseller.

I've never had any idea that what I like would resonate with the audience, and I'm pleasantly surprised when it does.

I started selling out comedy clubs before I got to town with no advertising. I was selling out theaters just on the rumor that I was going to be there.

Publishing is a very mysterious business. It is hard to predict what kind of sale or reception a book will have, and advertising seems to do very little good.

The business of entertainment is business first. I do a comic strip; the job, the business, is to be funny. If I’m not funny, the politics don’t matter, because no one will read it.

I just do the cream-of-the-crop songs in my show. We just bowl them over; they love us. It just keeps getting better.

I feel like, with a television show, you're always biting your nails hoping you're going to get that next season.