Stephan Pastis Quotes

To some extent I happily don't know what I'm doing. I feel that it's an artist's responsibility to trust that.

My career has gone in such a way that I've gotten to learn that, when you're working with a great storyteller, you don't ask questions; you just trust them.

I don't really trust ideas - especially good ones... Rather, I put my trust in the materials that confront me, because they put me in touch with the unknown.

It's my theory that many writers were the confidantes of one or the other parent. I was my mother's confidante; she had been her mother's confidante.

A wise parent humors the desire for independent action, so as to become the friend and advisor when his absolute rule shall cease.

My mother is a realist, and she's had biological and adoptive children, and she said it's no different: No matter what, they're putting a stranger into your arms. You don't know them yet.

My father would invite me sweetly to come and sit on a stool at his feet, and, as I let myself trustingly down, he would gently kick the seat from under me - and laugh.

I have a very open line of communication with both my children.

Once I'm on set, the only thing I'm really interested in is being in the room. Being present. And trusting that what I've done is sufficient, and I'm also trusting that I've also left room for magic.

The creative process is a process of surrender, not control.

I feel I do my best work when it's all there on the page, and I feel that the character is very vivid as I read the script and I'm not having to create stuff and trying to cobble together something. If I have to do that, then I don't entirely trust what I'm doing.

I don't keep secrets from my parents, really; it's pretty open.

I've become increasingly confidant in following intuitions ahead of thoughts as I produce more records.

I actually don't have a great surplus of ideas. Some evolve very slowly, over many years, but I sort of trust that all of the interesting ones will become something that I eventually end up doing.

No dance has ever turned out the way I thought it would, because I trust enough that I can start something with some ideas and then it takes itself somewhere.

I believe the better I can write on my own, the better I can be of service in a co-write. The big thing with a co-write is trust, and it's not so much what you get the first time you sit down with that writer. It's the relationship that you build that you're in. So you can trust throwing out all your ideas and how strong you think they might be.

I've come to trust that what I like is what works.

When I work as an art director, I don't ask to see sketches from illustrators or photographers. I give them a basic idea, and then I say, 'Send it to me, it'll be fine' - I get out of the way.

It's only normal for me to work with my family because I think they are talented and because there's a warmth when I'm working. As a filmmaker, sometimes you are very fragile. You are in a very fragile situation most of the time. I think it's important to be surrounded by people you just get along with.

My worst thing that I have is that I think too much. And so it's better to go with your gut and do your best and trust the creators and the director that you have there and go scene to scene.

You have to have patience and confidence that your things will let you know where they need to go. Particularly artwork. Paintings will tell you where they want to be.

When a child knows there's a secret, they don't know what it is, but they know it's there, and they know they're being lied to.

You have to go by your instincts in casting.

When I'm working on something, even when I don't know exactly where it's going, I have a sense of what I'd like to make. So maybe doing things right is following that sense even when I stop trusting myself. The rightness is in the process, even if it doesn't match up with my plans.

I'm very open with my kids and we can talk about anything.