Grant Achatz Quotes

When you're young, you're fearless and more creative, more of an outsider.

What I discovered in Berlin was this immense freedom because it felt like you could start any kind of project and nobody would care... and that's what I sort of adopted to my own.

In art, anything goes, and if it goes, it goes.

I'm one of those actors who is going to come in with 2,500 ideas. You can shoot down 2,499, but one of them you're going to like.

Outrageous behavior, also known as the lunatic fringe, is the seed bed of innovation and creativity.

Amuse-bouches are an opportunity to push boundaries.

You have to have an unlimited imagination, an unlimited restraint on your inhibition when you're working. You have to even dare to fail, even in a scene, whatever it is.

I'm always up for collaborating with people who are slightly leftfield.

Give the composer time to experiment, time to try out ideas. Also, the time to fail. When the composer has very little time, the temptation is to reach for stock ideas - ideas they know will work and have worked in the past.

My dad is a very creative type of person, so he has rolls that make no sense to most people familiar with sushi. He has a High Five roll. What is that? Don't ask questions. Just try it. He's kind of mischievous, and that's how I am, too.

When a producer like Prasad, who knows people's pulse, is ready to try something new, why not me?

I don't want to limit myself to any genre or language or a type. I want to always surprise the audience and, hence, keep raising the bar for myself.

Studios might support people trying to do something a little bit different and they'd be more open to the fact that there's more than one path to the waterfall.

Not to be boxed in, to be able to transcend boundaries: for an artist, it's essential.

You can't buy something which does not exist. In a way, let's make things exist and then judge later. Don't cancel the process of creativity too early; let it flow.

There's no such thing as a cautious creative.

My respect for artists is very high. I think to get the most out of them, you have to liberate them. I think part of liberating them is saying, 'Come up with something brilliant, new, and fresh. Stop thinking based on what has been beat into you by executives or publishers in terms of what's going to work and what's not. Don't react, just act.'

Sarah Vaughan is one of my greatest heroes. She personifies what an artist is all about, taking risks, daring to go beyond the boundaries of safety and convention. It takes courage to share your vulnerability.

I didn't want to do just another set of recipes. I think that's useless.

You can say I'm not the easiest architect in the world, because I'm always trying to push the limits.

I'm innately conservative, and painting is an ideal place to exercise a progressive conservatism. I operate well within limits.

Audacity is central to everything I do. A lot of times I think my work is about just seeing if I can get away with it.

When I went into film, it never occurred to me that I wouldn't be able to do whatever I wanted to do. Maybe that was a good thing in the beginning. I had blinders on, and I charged forward.

There is a place for visionaries and the avant-garde in this world, but not at 9 o'clock on a network.

I take chances. I don't limit myself. I don't think anybody who listens to Boston would have predicted hearing a female rapper on the beginning of the song 'Sail Away.' But that's what fit.