Willem Dafoe Quotes

The formation is not the most important thing.

People look to me to do things for them, to have answers.

Every morning, we choose between milk or tea or coffee. Usually, I know what I like, but I don't rule out changing my idea sometimes. The editing process is one of the most important parts in everyday life. The same is with my work: mistakes are part of the decision-making process.

The more adaptability exists for a given kind of decision, the less risky it is to make plans for the future, and therefore the more likely it is that more people will make more plans in such areas.

The truth is that many people set rules to keep from making decisions. Not me. I don't want to be a manager or a dictator. I want to be a leader-and leadership is ongoing, adjustable, flexible, and dynamic. As such, leaders have to maintain a certain amount of discretion

Doing a scene is like opening a bottle. If it doesn't open one way, try another - perhaps even give it up for another bottle?

Regulations are all very well for drill, but in the hour of danger they are no more use. You have to learn to think.

It's bad policy to speculate on what you'll do if a plan fails when you're trying to make a plan work.

If you reach for something and find out it's the wrong thing, you change your program and move on.

I'm in no position to hand down any advice," he said, "but there's a rule I follow when I don't know what to do." "A rule?" "If you have to choose between something that has form and something that doesn't, go for the one without form. That's my rule. Whenever I run into a wall I follow that rule, and it always works out. Even if it's hard going at the time.

I'm able to bring business expertise but, more importantly, operating experience. The people here at Google are young. Every day there are lots of new challenges. I keep things focused. The speech I give everyday is: "This is what we do. Is what you are doing consistent with that, and does it change the world?"

I don't micromanage the interiors. People ask me to and I say no. I don't want to control everything.

Being in charge isn't always about telling people what to do. Sometimes, it's about knowing when to step out of the way of people who know what they're doing. - Tam al'Thor

When it's impossible, it's better to stoop to compromise, without resisting and without complaining. People who complain are selfish.

I may have become a world champion quicker than most, but people should look at me and realise there are all kinds of ways to get where you want to go. Because we didn't plan it. We just did it.

Some people are pragmatists, taking things as they come and making the best of the choices available. Some people are idealists, standing for principle and refusing to compromise. And some people just act on any whim that enters their heads. I pragmatically turn my whims into principles.

Don't be a perfectionist, because perfectionists often spend too much time on little differences at the margins at the expense of other big, important things. Be an effective imperfectionist. Solutions that broadly work well (e.g., how people should contact each other in the event of crises) are generally better than highly specialized solutions (e.g., how each person should contact each other in the event of every conceivable crisis).

Accepting trial and error means accepting error. It means taking problems in our stride when a decision doesn't work out, whether through luck or misjudgment. And that is not something human brains seem to be able to do without a struggle.

I aspire to be an instrument of the director. I'm happiest like that. The stronger the director, the more I'm willing to give them. It's not just about admiration for their films, it's how they deal with you, and whether they get you or the way you work. If they don't, you better adjust your way of working to suit them. I want to work with people who are good at what they do, and people who are passionate. As you get older, you suffer fools less easily. That's why there's all those cranky character actors. I'm an exception. I'm a sweetheart.

A flip-flopper is an intelligent person who changes position when the circumstance changes.

I'm good at giving up control to people who know where they're going and what they want to do. I can sit in the back of a car and ride cross-country if you know where you're going and you know how to take me there.

[Donald] Trump, I think, is the sort of guy that if he maybe thought he'd made a little bit of a mistake, would find a way out, he wouldn't want to say, "Well, that's what I've done and I'm sticking to it, and I don't give a damn." Which is what the other people in America would be like.

When you don't know what to do, try something; if that doesn't work, try something else.

Plans are of little importance, but planning is essential.

I engage and after that I see what to do.