Walter Becker Quotes

I think if you're going to get anything done in the Senate, you have to be on the same sheet of music. If you don't get people on the same sheet of music it comes out pretty horrible.

The point is that filmmaking is a collaborative effort; it isn't about imposing your vision on other people. It's about the talking, you know?

I've learned how to trust someone else's ideas with mine.

If the auto plants in Detroit would just sit around the table and say, 'What do we gotta do to make this thing work?' Instead of, 'I want this and I want that.' They might make it.

I am totally down with disagreement. I don't like Haterade, but disagreement is wonderful. When someone disagrees, we try to reach common ground. That's good.

Let us agree here today to adopt among ourselves a simple and unwritten rule. We will not rise to criticize someone else's idea unless we are prepared to offer an alternative idea of our own.

If somebody came up with a really good idea, everyone would back it. Especially when we did the show, we had a real dedication that, if you were in somebody else's scene, everyone worked their hardest to make that scene good.

The aim of argument, or of discussion, should not be victory, but progress.

Encourage a readiness to find consensus.

If you want help from partners, that means listening to them every once in a while.

I think it's important to understand people can disagree on things, and still move forward.

If you would convince others, seem open to conviction yourself.

Life is very complicated. I look to collaborate with artistic people and to go into an endeavor without judgment and to hopefully be treated with the same.

The Duffers can be super articulate or very straight to the point. I was really impressed with how they were with each other.

You don't just go to your bosses and say, 'This sucks. I'm supposed to be winning everything.' If you have an awesome idea or a story, or something great, you go, 'Hey, how about we do this,' but when the story is not you, you have to find a way to make it work.

I have been fortunate to collaborate with people who have been open to discussion. If I tell them something, they have always explained to me why they want it the other way.

In a way, sometimes collaborating is more difficult because you have to listen.

You have to be open to other people's ideas, and you can't be too married to your own.

You really have to try and find a way to communicate [in the Rock and Roll Fantasy Camp], to respect each other's opinions and ideas, to be able to fight for something you feel is better than somebody else's idea.

I think... you know, collaboration, in general - no matter movies, television or Broadway - is offering of what you can bring to the table and also fighting what you think the important battles are. Not everything is going to make it in there. Not everything is going to work. You have to collaborate. And you have to be a good listener.

To get into another person's mindset and what they are trying to do with their project is a challenge, and it is what I like.

As a writer, you're really in control of almost everything. That's not the case in TV. You have to be prepared to work with a lot of people to make something happen, and you got to be prepared, at least in the beginning, to not be too good at your specific task.

Businesses that run well are almost like marriages. Everything has to be up for discussion, or there will be real problems.

When you let someone else win an argument, often you both end up winners.

There are two types of people: those who try to win and those who try to win arguments. They are never the same.