Zadie Smith Quotes

Successful people are the ones who think up things for the rest of the world to keep busy at.

So many people wait around for funding, and if they're unsuccessful, they don't make the film; if you've got a good idea, that seems so pointless. There's always a way of doing it; you've just got to find it.

My folks were very practical. They were also kind of able to think outside of the box. They were not going to let circumstance paralyze them. They knew sometimes you just had to take some new initiative. I think they passed that on to all of us... If you don't find a way, you make one.

If I don't get work, I'll create it.

No matter what you choose, build stuff and be around smart people.

The heart of entrepreneurship is never about what we have. It's about what we do.

America demands invention and innovation to succeed.

I think a lot of young people have incredible ideas and incredible insights, but sometimes they wait before they go give their life to something. What I did was just to start a little earlier.

Innovators are developing the ideas and bringing them to life in amazing new applications. All we, as an industry, need to do now is focus on standardizing the interfaces to ensure interoperability - and stand out of the way.

If you're not getting work, make your own work. I think that's a good mentality. I suppose I take my drive from my mother and my practicality from my father.

Our greatest lack is not money for any undertaking, but rather ideas, If the ideas are good, cash will somehow flow to where it is needed.

I've been fortunate to come on places where the question isn't why did I do it? The question to me is always, why didn't anybody else do it before me? Those are the ones that I scratch my head about.

Everyone who's ever taken a shower has an idea. It's the person who gets out of the shower, dries off and does something about it who makes a difference.

I really want to be part of things from the ground up wherever possible. Not to say that I'm not open to being a gun for hire - I am, absolutely - but I really enjoy developing.

I'm practical. I see something, and I do it.

I'm the type of person that doesn't like to wait for people to do things for me, and I never want to feel stuck. Why sit around and be like, 'I wish my label would book me some studio time,' if I can just buy my own studio equipment and figure out how to run Pro Tools and record it myself?

BuzzFeed started as a lab with a small team where we would play with ideas.

Older people sit down and ask, 'What is it?' but the boy asks, 'What can I do with it?'.

When we started the band, it was because we were waiting for a sound that never happened. We got tired of waiting, and we decided to just do it ourselves.

You need to be honest and always see new opportunities coming. So I call it intuition, innovation, execution - these are my working principles.

The beauty of the innovation that flows from the open web is that no one has to ask for permission, get a credential, or win a Disrupt or Launch award to go prove their idea is worthy. They just... put up a page on the web, iterate, iterate, iterate... and eventually, a Facebook emerges.

Forget about where you want to be and go out and build stuff. Dodgeball came from being bored at work... things happen because you make them happen. Stop sketching, and start building.

The rise of Google, the rise of Facebook, the rise of Apple, I think are proof that there is a place for computer science as something that solves problems that people face every day.

Nobody talks of entrepreneurship as survival, but that's exactly what it is and what nurtures creative thinking.

If there's ever an example of the importance of making bold bets and focusing on what you love, it's Twitter.