Jonathan Schell Quotes

I'm an improvisational actor. I like to do my own thing. But once in a while, I think you should have the self-restraint to let someone else dictate the story.

If you over-plan, you close the door on possibilities.

I bring ideas to set, and I'm more than willing for those to be affected and be malleable based on what the other person gives me. I don't know what another actor is going to give me, on the day, and I don't want to be so hard and fast in my technique that I'm not open to what's coming.

The biggest threat to a better life is the desire to keep the future under control - to make the world predictable by reining in creativity and enterprise. Progress as a neat blueprint, with no deviations and no surprise, may work in children's cartoons or utopian novels. But it's just a fantasy.

I guess confidence is the only thing that I take from project to project, but I'm always open to learning everybody's style - the director, the actor I'm working with.

In 10 years, I don't really know what I'll be, and I like not having any idea. I like the idea of being so passionate about everything I do and the fact that I might wake up tomorrow and say 'I want to be a chef,' and just pour myself into that.

I always leave room for serendipity and chance.

I come from a background where I like collaboration and improv. I think that it is important.

Inspiration is hard to come by. You have to take it where you find it.

I've never had a grand plan. I've only just tried to keep open to many different possibilities, have fun and work with people who are passionate about what they do.

I like many different things you know so I'm probably going to experiment, and if I didn't I'd be a little bit strange and boring and stiff and kind of dead, and I'm very not that.

I think focusing limits you. As long as nothing that I'm doing suffers from my ADD in wanting to do everything, then I want to just keep doing everything. It keeps it fresh and fun.

I'm not a career filmmaker. I just like to do things that I still kind of believe in and because of that you just never know what's going to happen next. It doesn't matter if it's been a good year or a bad year: next year, there's no telling what it will be like.

The whole thing about the way I approach work is to be surprised by an opportunity when it comes up. So I have no idea what I will be doing next, and I kind of like that.

You never know how things are going to turn out in a movie. You can imagine a scene one way, and it can turn out to be completely the polar opposite of what you expected. You just have to roll with the punches.

As an architect, you cannot be so arrogant as to say you are 100% sure about what you do.

I've learned to respect the whimsical.

It's such a great thing to work with people and not have a plan.

I quite like the element of surprise, and as much as I have my ideas, I always appreciate ideas that come from other people as well, and I love the mystery of not knowing.

Think on your toes, use what's around you, and come up with something organic and fun.

When I'm making something, I've always felt in charge and therefore able to call the shots. But what you've got to do is stop that turning into arrogance or despotism!

I'm not a planner. I like to try something different, to just see what happens.

Inevitably, when directors work with me on a set, they say, 'This isn't what I was expecting. I thought you were going to be very serious.' But I like to stay loose and have a good time and not take myself too seriously. I think, otherwise, you get in your own way.

I try not to stick to any one thing, you know. That's always been important to me.

Being open to the unexpected allows me to bring so much to my craft.