Irving Thalberg Quotes

I think television has always been one to replicate when something's successful. I don't think there's quite as much innovation.

If you fear making anyone mad, then you ultimately probe for the lowest common denominator of human achievement.

Mix sheer hypocrisy with mediocrity, You play it safe every time.

Everyone is looking for the sure thing. They are looking to hedge their bet. They think the way to do that is to go with a proven quantity, a remake of something you have already seen. That is their mindset.

Hollywood movies are run on fear and they don't want to make bold choices. They, generally, speaking want to keep things status quo. That's not really interesting for me.

Studios are often very nervous of things they don't recognize, by which I mean things that haven't been done before, and therefore, they take a really original idea, and they recognize the originality, and then they try and make it look like something they recognize. So they try to turn it into something far more procedural.

Caution is the path to mediocrity.

There are always twenty excellent reasons for doing nothing for every one reason for starting anything-especially if it has never been done before.

It's way easier to stay in the comfort zone, especially when things are going good than to go out on a limb and take some risks. My philosophy is exactly the opposite: Sometimes it's risky not to take a risk.

They who set an example make a highway. Others follow the example, because it is easier to travel on a highway than over untrodden grounds.

Ironically, in a changing world, playing it safe is one of the riskiest things you can do.

We have a society that's trying to make sure that nobody gets any adventures because adventures are dangerous and danger is bad.

Risks are a measure of people. People who won't take them are trying to preserve what they have. People who do take them often end up having more. Some risks have a future, and some people call them wrong. But being right may be like walking backwards proving where you've been. Being wrong isn't in the future, or in the past. Being wrong isn't anywhere but being here. Best place to be, eh?

The imitator dooms himself to hopeless mediocrity.

Rivalry causes us to overemphasize old opportunities and slavishly copy what has worked in the past.

When a daring idea first crosses one's mind, if it is to be realized in the future it is often appealing. Then, as the time for its execution comes nearer, one begins to dread that which had once been anticipated.

Clinging to any form of conservatism can be dangerous. Become too conservative and you are unprepared for surprises. You cannot depend on luck. Logic is blind and often knows only its own past. Logic is good for playing chess but is often too slow for the needs of survival.

When you don't know the rules, you break them all. It's hard to take big risks when you know the history of an industry and what has worked and what didn't.

Perhaps a lunatic was simply a minority of one. At one time it had been a sign of madness to believe that the Earth goes round the Sun; today, to believe the past is inalterable. He might be alone in holding that belief, and if alone, then a lunatic. But the thought of being a lunatic did not greatly trouble him; the horror was that he might also be wrong.

Tension means hurry, fear, doubt. Tension means a constant effort to protect, to be secure, to be safe. Tension means preparing for the tomorrow now, or for the afterlife - afraid tomorrow you will not be able to face the reality, so be prepared. Tension means the past that you have not lived really but only somehow bypassed; it hangs, it is a hangover, it surrounds you.

Always choose the new, the less travelled by. Always choose the unknown, the less travelled by.

Imposing an alleged uniform general method upon everybody breeds mediocrity in all but the very exceptional. And measuring originality by deviation from the mass breeds eccentricity in them.

Imitators are but a servile kind of cattle.

The creative process is also the most terrifying part because you don't know exactly what's going to happen or where it is going to lead. You don't know what new dangers and challenges you'll find. It takes an enormous amount of internal security to begin with the spirit of adventure, discovery, and creativity. Without doubt, you have to leave the comfort zone of base camp and confront an entirely new and unknown wilderness.

Trying to be cool is the easiest path to mediocrity