Margaret J. Wheatley Quotes

So what starts is ad hoc and you never know where it's going to lead, so it's important to keep an open mind about those things.

In my work, I have never had any use for anything that I have known in advance.

We have the script, we have the actors, and we're trying to figure out what this is, and you don't know what it is. You have to be open to what it's going to become rather than have this thing that you're trying to get to, which is boring.

Producing a series is like being Lewis and Clark: You know where you're going, you just don't know how you're going to get there. When people say, 'You should create a bible for your show,' I say, 'You don't want a bible. It'll prevent you from making discoveries along the way.' And that's what happened on 'The X-Files.'

So much of making movies is about discovery on the day, what you're figuring out. If you know everything going in, then it's not worth doing - it's already done.

I like to leave a little room to innovate and change things around while I'm working.

When you work with an actor and then you discover new things that are better, I think you gotta be free to be able to go with the new things that you're finding. I think that's very important. I have a strong idea when I go to shoot a movie but I also love to discover things when I'm on set as well.

If you don't have a plan, you can end up doing some interesting things.

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'm not a creature of habit. I like to find things from unexpected sources.

My methodology is not knowing what I'm doing and making that work for me.

The essence of play is that the sequence of actions is fluid and scattered.

I always try to keep that feeling of being on the edge. I'm afraid of knowing too well and seeming mechanical.

I like to reinvent with each project, in any which way possible.

If we knew what we were doing we wouldn't be entertaining.

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

The important thing is not to know where you are going, to be open to accidents. That's what keeps it fun.

I am always living in the now, so I like what fate brings to you. That's always fun for me. To have a process and someone be like, 'How about this?' And you just grab onto that and see where it takes you.

The desire to get from point A to point B in the shortest, most efficient amount of time without ever wandering off path, can mean you miss out on those happy accidents that push you further and faster in a direction you never even considered.

Let's just start and see what happens.

I'll play it first and figure out what it's called later.

You're at your best when you don't know what you're doing.

In improvisation, there are no mistakes.

We are comfortable with formulas, but the best happens when the formula doesn't work.

A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent upon arriving. A good artist lets his intuition lead him wherever it wants. A good scientist has freed himself of concepts and keeps his mind open to what is.